What does a category manager do?
Category managers are usually employed in the retail industry. They are primarily responsible for the sales enhancement of a specific group of products. The managers are involved in pricing, marketing, inventory, and vendor management. Their daily tasks include meeting with suppliers to talk about the plans, conducting orientation to the market research company, and updating category reports. Qualified applicants must have a degree in business administration or a related field as well as relevant job experience in a related job.
Category manager responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real category manager resumes:
- Lead team to manage predominantly seasonal fashion apparel by reacting to trends with appropriate buys and proactive exit strategies.
- Manage and create purchase plans and OTB's.
- Design and manage all BTL plans for the brands.
- Manage multiple sources of data to mine for business voids and opportunities at both macro and micro levels.
- Deliver profit and sales forecasts, manage merchandising budget, and used IRI data to produce optimal product mix.
- Lead a high performance jewelry merchandising team in a digital commerce environment through television, e-commerce, and social media.
- Develop RFP's and RFI's during vendor negotiations.
- Provide in-depth analysis on RFP and RFI results along with benchmarking data.
- Recognize by GMM for bringing new trend right product to the store.
- Coach to negotiate pricing, timing, co-op dollars, and issue resolution.
- Grant multiple design patents for unique pet products; recently apply for utility patents.
- Negotiate over $300K from multiple suppliers to develop category and product specific SEM campaigns.
- Direct and coordinate TV and Internet merchandise assortments for the gold, silver and fashion jewelry categories.
- Add multiple categories, including jewelry, scarves, belts, and cold weather, to direct sourcing.
- Recognize the importance of constant communication and follow up when developing relationships with better/brand labels, which drive comp.
Category manager skills and personality traits
We calculated that 8% of Category Managers are proficient in Strategic Sourcing, Category Strategy, and Supplier Performance. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Communication skills, and Creativity.
We break down the percentage of Category Managers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Strategic Sourcing, 8%
Led and implemented Strategic Sourcing Initiative for third party management of corrugated secondary packaging supply to current first tier supplier base.
- Category Strategy, 8%
Developed first regional category strategy, successfully integrating the Lysol brand acquisition and led its implementation in Southern Europe.
- Supplier Performance, 5%
Manage overall supplier functionality including price, quality, on-time delivery, technical support and supplier performance reports.
- Supplier Relationships, 4%
Established effective supplier relationships to ensure overall profitability of categories and negotiate marketing programs to maximize promotional spending within the category.
- Customer Service, 4%
Provide effective training in the areas of customer service, product knowledge, inventory control and merchandising while offering developmental opportunities.
- Cost Savings, 4%
Initiated, negotiated and implemented company wide cost savings projects with supply base and manufacturing locations for managed commodities.
Common skills that a category manager uses to do their job include "strategic sourcing," "category strategy," and "supplier performance." You can find details on the most important category manager responsibilities below.
Analytical skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a category manager to have is analytical skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to analyze industry trends to determine the most promising strategies for their organization." Category managers often use analytical skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "optimized and consolidated material supply base through manufacturer to supplier analysis that defined the optimal supplier relationships for preferred manufacturers. "
Communication skills. Many category manager duties rely on communication skills. "managers must be able to communicate effectively with a broad-based team made up of other managers or staff members during the advertising, promotions, and marketing process," so a category manager will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways category manager responsibilities rely on communication skills: "maintain communication and design for seasonal trends with the safeway hong kong global sourcing team. "
Creativity. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of category managers is creativity. This skill is critical to many everyday category manager duties, as "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to generate new and imaginative ideas." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "create financial plans for entire category including sales, gross margin, turns and inventory for multiple channels of business. "
Interpersonal skills. A big part of what category managers do relies on "interpersonal skills." You can see how essential it is to category manager responsibilities because "managers must deal with a range of people in different roles, both inside and outside the organization." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical category manager tasks: "delivered a captivating customer experience through excellent interpersonal skills. "
Organizational skills. Another crucial skill for a category manager to carry out their responsibilities is "organizational skills." A big part of what category managers relies on this skill, since "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must manage their time and budget efficiently while directing and motivating staff members." How this skill relates to category manager duties can be seen in an example from a category manager resume snippet: "build strategic relationships with key partners and suppliers, leading contract negotiations and structuring relationships to best advance organizational objectives. "
The three companies that hire the most category managers are:
- Verint99 category managers jobs
- Highmark86 category managers jobs
- Advantage Solutions56 category managers jobs
Choose from 10+ customizable category manager resume templates
Build a professional category manager resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your category manager resume.
Compare different category managers
Category manager vs. Business development manager
A business development manager's duties include identifying business opportunities, developing effective models and strategies to improve business performance, searching for potential clients to generate income and attract partnerships. A business development manager must have extensive knowledge of the market trends and adjust strategies as needed to meet the needs of the client. Excellent communication, decision-making, critical thinking, and leadership skills are just some of the key factors that business development managers should possess to communicate and negotiate with the clients.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a category manager are more likely to require skills like "strategic sourcing," "category strategy," "supplier performance," and "supplier relationships." On the other hand, a job as a business development manager requires skills like "crm," "healthcare," "business relationships," and "customer relationships." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Business development managers tend to make the most money working in the finance industry, where they earn an average salary of $103,515. In contrast, category managers make the biggest average salary, $95,563, in the manufacturing industry.On average, business development managers reach similar levels of education than category managers. Business development managers are 0.3% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.6% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Category manager vs. Manager, strategy
A strategy manager is an individual who reviews a company's objectives for growth and works with executives to formulate actionable plans to achieve these objectives. To make comprehensive recommendations, strategy managers must conduct data analysis of the organization as well as the overall industry. They must provide assessments of market trends and identify business threats and opportunities. Strategy managers should also work with department heads to develop individual team goals and break them down into actionable steps for the employees to complete.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real category manager resumes. While category manager responsibilities can utilize skills like "category strategy," "supplier performance," "supplier relationships," and "strong analytical," managers, strategy use skills like "project management," "portfolio," "client facing," and "business development."
Managers, strategy earn a higher average salary than category managers. But managers, strategy earn the highest pay in the technology industry, with an average salary of $116,769. Additionally, category managers earn the highest salaries in the manufacturing with average pay of $95,563 annually.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Managers, strategy tend to reach higher levels of education than category managers. In fact, they're 15.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Category manager vs. Merchandising manager
A merchandising manager is responsible for supervising stock inventories, retail pricing, and managing product displays by analyzing customer preferences through researching the current market trends that would improve the store's sales condition and achieve profitability goals. Merchandising managers negotiate with reliable third-party vendors, minimizing costs without compromising the quality of the products. They also assist with planning floor layouts for store visuals that would attract customers and marketing promotional offers and special discounts to increase more revenues.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from category manager resumes include skills like "strategic sourcing," "category strategy," "supplier performance," and "supplier relationships," whereas a merchandising manager is more likely to list skills in "apparel," "pallets," "merchandise presentation," and "drive sales. "
Merchandising managers earn the highest salary when working in the retail industry, where they receive an average salary of $84,024. Comparatively, category managers have the highest earning potential in the manufacturing industry, with an average salary of $95,563.When it comes to education, merchandising managers tend to earn lower degree levels compared to category managers. In fact, they're 9.2% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.1% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Category manager vs. Regional marketing manager
A Regional Marketing Manager plans and implements strategic marketing plans for an organization at a regional level. They analyze data, create recommendations, and write reports.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between category managers and regional marketing managers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a category manager might have more use for skills like "strategic sourcing," "category strategy," "supplier performance," and "supplier relationships." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of regional marketing managers require skills like "digital marketing," "integrated marketing," "marketing campaigns," and "project management. "
The construction industry tends to pay the highest salaries for regional marketing managers, with average annual pay of $106,890. Comparatively, the highest category manager annual salary comes from the manufacturing industry.regional marketing managers reach similar levels of education compared to category managers, in general. The difference is that they're 0.9% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.4% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of category manager
Updated January 8, 2025
