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Category manager skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
4 min read
Quoted expert
Dr. Richard Conde Ph.D.
Category manager example skills
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical category manager skills. We ranked the top skills for category managers based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 8.1% of category manager resumes contained strategic sourcing as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a category manager needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 category manager skills for your resume and career

1. Strategic Sourcing

Here's how category managers use strategic sourcing:
  • Led and implemented Strategic Sourcing Initiative for third party management of corrugated secondary packaging supply to current first tier supplier base.
  • Performed category analysis, strategic sourcing, contract negotiations and supplier management, and provided procurement process guidance to business partners.

2. Category Strategy

A category strategy is a strategy that is used to refine the role of the category to achieve scorecard objectives and is designed to increase market share, increase sales, improve gross margin, increase return on investment, gain customer satisfaction, and achieve profitability. It is a means to drive sales of a specific group of products and can be implemented at the store level. It maximizes value, efficiency, quality, and innovation, as well as mitigating risk.

Here's how category managers use category strategy:
  • Developed first regional category strategy, successfully integrating the Lysol brand acquisition and led its implementation in Southern Europe.
  • Developed category strategy and worked with key internal stakeholders to assure a flawless implementation of the category strategy.

3. Supplier Performance

Supplier performance refers to practices aimed at optimizing a supplier's performance and capabilities.

Here's how category managers use supplier performance:
  • Manage overall supplier functionality including price, quality, on-time delivery, technical support and supplier performance reports.
  • Reviewed supplier performance reports consistent with agreed requirements to ensure consistency with quality, service and delivery objectives.

4. Supplier Relationships

Here's how category managers use supplier relationships:
  • Established effective supplier relationships to ensure overall profitability of categories and negotiate marketing programs to maximize promotional spending within the category.
  • Focused on delivering sourcing, procurement, and commodity expertise enabling organizations to optimize their spend management processes and supplier relationships.

5. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how category managers use customer service:
  • Provide effective training in the areas of customer service, product knowledge, inventory control and merchandising while offering developmental opportunities.
  • Coordinated with customer service and logistics teams to ensure timely delivery of customer orders.

6. Cost Savings

Here's how category managers use cost savings:
  • Initiated, negotiated and implemented company wide cost savings projects with supply base and manufacturing locations for managed commodities.
  • Implemented sourced categories across multiple business units creating effective cost savings for the organization.

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7. Data Analysis

Here's how category managers use data analysis:
  • Conduct syndicated/panel data analysis to understand brand performance, competitive conditions, and category trends of the Company's seven categories.
  • Presented category reviews incorporating syndicated data analysis, consumer and category insights and strategies to Kmart/Sears.

8. Nielsen

Nielsen is an independent global measurement and data company for consumer goods, consumer behavior, and fast-moving media. Nielsen provides its clients with market research, information, and data on what people around the world and locally watch, hear and buy, and how those choices intersect.

Here's how category managers use nielsen:
  • Utilized Nielsen and internal sales indicators to analyze category trends to develop customer actionable strategies for impact against retail channels.
  • Provide both category and consumer insights using Nielsen and IRI data to improve revenue/profitability between Safeway and Kraft Foods.

9. Market Trends

Here's how category managers use market trends:
  • Develop and maintain relationships with internal stakeholders to communicate new products, market trends and solutions for category management.
  • Monitored competitive and market trends to develop on target programming and field sales execution to maintain a competitive advantage.

10. Category Management

Here's how category managers use category management:
  • Developed and led strategic category management group that provided strategy consulting and in-depth market analysis to major retail mass merchant customers.
  • Work directly with Division Vice President, as a Senior Category Management resource for all internal and external category management initiatives.

11. IRI

The IRI (Internationalized Resource Identifier) is an Internet protocol standard that allows the use of formats and characters that are apt for national languages except for English. You can use IRIs in place of URLs or URIs, where they're supported by the applications associated with the request and response. While the definition of the IRI is similar to a URI (which is limited to the ASCII characters subset), here, the character set may extend to the Universal Coded Character Set.

Here's how category managers use iri:
  • Prepared reports with IRI Data Analyzer and analyzed syndicated data to aid decision making on product mix and marketing strategy.
  • Trained sales & marketing on how to properly utilize IRI syndicated & household data to help craft meaningful sales stories.

12. Macro

Here's how category managers use macro:
  • Gained valuable experience in Excel including: creating macros, pivot tables, functions and the analysis tool pack.
  • Developed a business performance tracking system using Excel Macros, pivot tables, and pivot charts.

13. Cost Reduction

Here's how category managers use cost reduction:
  • Performed analysis on generic pharmaceutical spend to understand cost reduction initiative opportunities including moving to Just In Time inventory model.
  • Charged with driving cost reduction through rationalization, negotiation and competition while maintaining supplier capabilities and readiness to provide products.

14. Business Reviews

A business review is a published survey about a company. It helps the company gauge their performance and see how they can improve, plan and implement policies to increase their companies' revenue.

Here's how category managers use business reviews:
  • Lead quarterly business reviews presenting results and opportunities to executive leadership team and international brand managers.
  • Developed monthly and quarterly business reviews and reported to upper management on all regional activities monthly.

15. Good Communication

Here's how category managers use good communication:
  • Maintain good communication throughout the stores and promote good associate relations and high morale.
top-skills

What skills help Category Managers find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What soft skills should all category managers possess?

Dr. Richard Conde Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, University of Houston - Downtown

The need for soft skills are consistent through time. With our societal focus on social media, texting, emojis, etc. It appears to me companies are looking for the following:

- Active listening skills

- Willingness to be self-reflective and accept feedback

- Accept different perspectives. The collision of ideas creates knowledge

- Communicate to the listener (at their level). Flex communicators

- Cultural intelligence. Demographics changes will require better understanding of team member's, boss', customer's, etc. cultural context
Do you want to know more?
Read more about what experts have to say about category manager

List of category manager skills to add to your resume

Category manager skills

The most important skills for a category manager resume and required skills for a category manager to have include:

  • Strategic Sourcing
  • Category Strategy
  • Supplier Performance
  • Supplier Relationships
  • Customer Service
  • Cost Savings
  • Data Analysis
  • Nielsen
  • Market Trends
  • Category Management
  • IRI
  • Macro
  • Cost Reduction
  • Business Reviews
  • Good Communication
  • Strategic Thinking
  • Market Analysis
  • ROI
  • Excellent Interpersonal
  • Direct Reports
  • HR
  • RFP
  • Market Research
  • POS
  • Sales Associates
  • Strong Project Management
  • Vendor Relationships
  • Business Results
  • Strong Negotiation
  • Commodities
  • Spend Analysis
  • Lean Six Sigma
  • Sales Growth
  • KPI
  • MRO
  • Consumer Insights
  • Global Sourcing
  • Gross Margin
  • Lifecycle Management
  • Payment Terms
  • Stakeholder Relationships
  • Inventory Management
  • Contract Negotiations
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • Strategic Direction
  • Product Line
  • Category Growth
  • Product Knowledge
  • Gross Profit

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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