Merchant
at Birchbox (View all jobs)New York
About Birchbox
Since 2010, Birchbox has redefined the way people discover and shop for beauty and grooming by pairing a monthly subscription of handpicked, customized samples with relevant content and a curated e-commerce shop.
Birchbox’s trailblazing subscription concept has continued to innovate. Today, it speaks directly to an otherwise-overlooked, underserved consumer—a consumer who Birchbox calls "The Casual Consumer.” Casual Consumers are not passionate about beauty, and want a simple, personalized way to explore, buy, and use beauty. They want it to be easy, effective, fun—and they expect the same things of their beauty products. Birchbox is the destination for all who identify as Beauty Casual.
As Birchbox continues to innovate, the women-founded-and-run company is eagerly working to become a leader in industry-wide efforts toward greater sustainability and racial equity. Birchbox operates in three countries, and reaches more than 2.5 million active customers with a portfolio of 300 best-in-class prestige brand partners.
Visit www.birchbox.com for a forever useful, always delightful beauty and grooming experience.
Position Overview
Merchants are foundational to providing our customers a casual way to discover and shop for new beauty and grooming products. Merchants are key cross functional partners to delivering on our physical experience for casual consumers via the box. The products they source for the box and shop are a direct reflection of Birchbox’s values, expert curation and the needs of the Birchbox community.
The Merchant team contributes to shaping and implementing strategies for digital and physical product experiences to achieve total company financial targets and strategic initiatives. Birchbox is on a quest to widen our assortment so that people from all backgrounds, body types, skin tones, ages, and self‑identity can see product offerings that fit their needs. The team is also focused on adding sustainably impactful brands and products to the assortment.
**Our office is based out of New York, NY. Due to COVID, our team is working remotely until further notice.**
Responsibilities
Identify, source and oversee a portfolio of brands from initial pitch to launch and ongoing account management.
Seek out brands (indie to widely known) who align with our product focus; clean, sustainable, female-owned and diverse-owned brands.
Increase brand partner NPS: Strive to be the best relationship partner for each brand you work with.
Negotiate terms of partnerships to hit COGs budgets and ensure beneficial contracts for Birchbox and external partners.
Partner with marketing on negotiation of brand partnership to determine if/how we champion that brand cross functionally.
Be a category expert: Build robust product knowledge of beauty and grooming products and tools that uniquely serve the casual consumer at a category level, brand level, product level
Identify Caj trends to build growth in box and shop revenue
Know how all products should be used and who can use them
Find products that fit the needs of a diverse range of consumers and learn about ways to contextualize efficacy for the Caj consumer.
Create and manage all copy related tasks as it relates to your brand portfolio
Learn how the subscription and shop work in conjunction to maximize ability to hit subscriber and shop revenue targets
Identify and grow brand relationships that maximize this
Edit and sort existing categories and focus on the products our customers need to know about, including items we have a history of sampling as well as new, exciting, and on-trend products.
Accountable for the assortment’s performance; SKU productivity, margin, and curating products that drive organic website traffic and boost customer shop sales and activation.
Work with the merchandising and planning teams on monthly and seasonal shop campaigns Set budget and sourcing to box and shop COGs targets with the full merchandising and planning teams.
Partner with Content, Creative and Product teams to deliver on successful sampling and shop launches
Project managing brand campaigns and unique deal terms
Create insightful analytics packages to deliver campaign results to brand partners
Utilize data to build value for brand relationships and integrating this into sales pitches
Qualifications
5+ years of work experience
Experience in Merchandising, Buying, Sales, Planning or Business Development a plus
Exceptional communication and presentation skills
Ability to build strong relationships with both brands and internal team members
Ability to demonstrate flexibility and excitement in an ever changing environment
Birchbox welcomes people from all backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, and experiences. We celebrate how different perspectives benefit our employees, our products, and our community. We are focused on cultivating a diverse and inclusive work environment that encourages collaboration, creativity, and innovation. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.