Oak Brook, IL, USA
33 days ago
E-Commerce Senior Merchant

About This Role

The Sr. E-Commerce Merchant is at the core of driving traffic, online sales and conversion of digital commerce as a means to achieve its primary purpose of driving store sales volume, and to be a resource for consumers and retailers to enable more customer interaction and more business.

What You’ll Do

Strategy and Planning

Develop and Execute strategies for the online channel around the 4 p’s of Marketing-Execute product, pricing and placement strategy across the entire acehardware.com platform while driving profitable sales through all aspects of Internet assortment planning (ie core basic/omni channel skus ) internet only skus, vendor direct skus, and clearance skus, that materially advance/shape the Ace brand and online business

Act as a thought leader, mentor, coach within the online team

Relentlessly maintain a critical eye for all thing’s user experience, with goal of removing as much friction across the purchase funnel

Improve Site Findability; through Search & Browse optimization activities

Review KPI & web behavior metrics to generate data driven insights & actions

Manage product recommendation, basket builder, and trade-up strategies

Drive future online only assortment expansion strategies via drop ship

Analyze the ecommerce market to develop understandings of market trends and competitors’ strengths, weaknesses and strategies

Develop and Manage Online Merchandising Assortment

Curate additional product and brand as online exclusives

Grow category sales to achieve plan

Work cross functionally with the Ace Internal Merchandising team to collaborate within existing vendor relationships

Promotional Planning

Plan and negotiate all item level online promotional activity.

Negotiate all online item level pricing concessions including item cost concessions, vendor subsidies and credits, and vendor advertising placement revenue.

Collaborate with existing promotional team to support integrated omni channel promotions.

Collaborate with ecommerce marketing and analytics team to determine timing and consumer discount structure for site wide promotional offerings.

Collaborate with creative and design team to bring various promotional offerings to life within the acehardware.com platform as well as email support initiatives

Content Assets

Work directly with vendors to harvest effective consumer content for product offerings in order to maximize consumer experience and sales potential.

Collaborate with existing content team to review product content and images for the online experience

Retailer /Store Communication

Create and publish retailer centric monthly acehardware.com alerts to provide awareness of promotional direction of acehardware.com channel for retailers.

Create, maintain and publish monthly promotional summary sheet on Acenet in order to provide retailers continual and updated access to special retails, costs and credits.

Collaborate with Promotional team to provide monthly acehardware.com content within the regularly published monthly Win the Month Planner.

Coordinate with Ace Care Center for calls and e-mails related to respective category questions and inquiries

Inventory/Supply Chain Support

Communicate and collaborate with inventory and Merchandising team on acehardware.com specific promotions and their respective inventory requirements.

Collaborate with Closeout team to determine promotional opportunities

Review key item inventory levels on a daily basis and manage online offering in order to maximize in-stock position and sales

Financial Management & Site Analytics

Forecast sales based and share performance outcomes with leadership  

Develop financial business cases needed for UX/IT project prioritization.

Dissect user behavior and category/item/brand performance using web analytics tools (i.e. Google Analytics, Foresee, etc.) as well as other internal KPI/sales reports to develop actionable insights.

Talent Management

Effectively manage, develop, and coach 1 or more online merchants

Prioritize and guide team workloads

Identify areas in need of process change to improve efficiency/effectiveness

Who You Are

You are analytical, curious and have an appetite for growth

Required Skills

The Sr. E-Commerce Merchant will be leading OR developing in the below competencies à

Sr. E-Commerce Merchant Competencies

Product passion – Natural curiosity around product and the online marketplace, demonstrated and put into action. 

Results-oriented – Ability to drive results to and above plan with full accountability, proactively shifting efforts as trends and business variables change

Negotiation skills Ability to negotiate with vendors to drive results leveraging company scale, business drivers and strategies

Planning skills Ability to short term, long term plan to capture real time demand and plan for the future whilst meeting team sales goals

Collaboration—Cross functional partnership throughout the entire Merchandising team and vendors, as well as the various Marketing teams

Web Analytics & Financial Analysis –Business acumen and deep understanding of online KPIs. Ability to proactively and reactively dive deep into the data and develop actionable insights to drive conversion and sales

Experience and Technical Requirements

A Minimum of 6 years of ecommerce, marketing, merchandising, and/or product management experience

Prior experience managing direct reports

Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business or Merchandising

Demonstrated ability to analyze/interpret data, proactively make recommendations and successfully implement plans

Demonstrate strong decision-making skills

Strong interpersonal and collaborative skills required

Highly creative, flexible and adaptable with good follow-through

Proven ability to multi-task projects and meet deadlines

Strong verbal and written communication skills 

Strong problem-solving skills required

Proficient in Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, Power Point, Google Analytics

Preferred Skills

Google Analytics

Experience managing a direct report or mentoring

Experience in retail

#LI-CS1

Compensation Details:

$98400 - $123000 Per Year

Why should you join our team?

We live our values - W.E.L.I.G.H.T (Winning, Excellence, Love, Integrity, Gratitude, Humility, and Teamwork). Gratitude. Humility. Love. You don’t often see values like these in most corporate statements, but Ace is different. These things are important to us. They represent our commitment to the company, our employees, to Ace retailers and to the Ace brand.

In addition to providing our employees a great culture, Ace also offers competitive benefits* that address life’s necessities and perks, many of which expand and improve year after year, including:

Incentive opportunities, based on role/grade level (rapid company growth over the past 5 years resulted in incentives being paid out at an average of 122% of your target opportunity!)Generous 401(k) retirement savings plan with a fully vested matching contribution the first year in addition to quarterly contributions and annual discretionary contribution (once eligibility requirements have been met).  Over the past 5 years, company contributions (matching, quarterly & discretionary) for fully eligible employees have averaged 9.6% of total eligible compensationComprehensive health coverage (medical, dental, vision and disability – up to 26 weeks short-term disability and long-term disability) & life insurance benefits for you and your dependents21 days of vacation immediately available (prorated in the first year) and up to 6 paid holidays depending on the month of hireCompany Car, phone and fuel card are provided for field-based positionsYour career at Ace is more than just a job. It’s a chance to be part of something meaningful. We help locally-owned businesses thrive and make an impact in their communities – and we support our employees in doing the same by offering an annual Ace Cares Week, 20 hours off work per year to volunteer at an organization of your choice, opportunities to help Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and the Ace Helpful Fund through the Ace FoundationAce invests in every employee we hire, with a key focus on development and coaching. We offer on-site classes, facilitator-led courses, and a generous tuition assistance program, plus a performance management approach that goes beyond the typical annual reviewWe know the work environment matters. That’s why Ace holds frequent campus events like Employee Appreciation Week, vendor demos, cookouts, and merchandise salesWe bring them to you! Services such as mobile spas, auto maintenance, car wash and detailing, dry cleaning, dentists, eye doctors, flu shots, recycling and more!Employee discounts on Ace merchandise (including top brands like Weber, Traeger, Yeti, Craftsman, DeWalt and more), travel, fitness, computers and thousands moreBirth/Adoption bonding paid time offAdoption cost reimbursementEmployee Assistance Program (EAP) – access to free visits to therapists and lawyers, guidance on financial matters, elder and childcare, and assistance with tickets to entertainment eventsIdentity theft protection

* Benefits are provided in compliance with applicable policies.

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We want to hear from you!
When most people think of career opportunities with Ace Hardware, they often think of the helpful cashiers and sales associates at their local store. However, have you also considered the people behind the scenes who select, promote, ship and process the invoices for more than 75,000 products? Maybe you haven't, but we'd like you to. Because together we help our customers take care of their homes. Come find out why a career with the Ace Hardware Corporation is one of America's best kept secrets.

Equal Opportunity Employer
Ace Hardware Corporation is committed to a policy of promoting equal employment opportunities. The company recognizes the importance of diversity and leveraging the skills and talents of all people to the mutual advantage of each individual and the organization. The company is committed to the prevention of employment discrimination related to race, religion, color, sex (including sexual harassment), gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, disability and military or veteran status, sexual orientation or any other action covered by federal or applicable state/local laws.

Disclaimer

The pay range for this position starts as listed in the job posting, but could be higher based on education and experience. Please note, compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each opening. We take into consideration the minimum requirements outlined in the job description, such as an individual’s education, training and experience, the position’s work location, required travel (if any), and external market conditions when determining the final salary for potential new hires.

Be aware that salary estimates published via alternate online job boards may not be a true representation of the actual pay range offered for this position. Please refer to the Ace position description for the accurate starting pay range information and feel free to discuss this with a Talent Acquisition professional if you are chosen to move forward with an interview.

This written “Position Description” is not intended to cover all aspects of the position listed. It is meant to cover the basic/general essential job functions of a particular position. Ace Hardware Corporation reserves the right to change job duties, including essential job functions, according to business necessity.

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