What does a merchandising director do?
A merchandising director is in charge of spearheading and streamlining merchandising strategies, including promotion and branding. Using their expertise and experience, they conceptualize plans with fellow directors and managers, perform extensive research and analysis, gather and analyze data, set goals and guidelines, establish budgets and schedules, and build positive relationships with external business partners. Moreover, as a merchandising director, they must lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
Merchandising director responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real merchandising director resumes:
- Manage and train associates on shop operations including customer service standards, checking in merchandise, operating QuickBooks POS.
- Lead website development committee, including RFP development, ROI analysis, marketing, brand-enhancement strategies, and back-end integration solutions.
- Input all merchandise information in to AS400.
- Identify, negotiate, purchase and implement new POS software systems.
- Develop comprehensive marketing plan including print and digital, utilizing negotiate funding to support events and driving additional revenue and margin.
- Set annual and semi-annual ROI, sales, margin, and turn goals for all divisions in the company.
- Identify base sales growth opportunities for customer across key personal care categories through changes in the POG versioning process.
Merchandising director skills and personality traits
We calculated that 9% of Merchandising Directors are proficient in Apparel, Gross Margin, and Direct Reports. They’re also known for soft skills such as Creativity, Interpersonal skills, and Organizational skills.
We break down the percentage of Merchandising Directors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Apparel, 9%
Directed operational initiatives in the dynamic seasonal environment of the apparel industry.
- Gross Margin, 8%
Evaluated existing product and new development against gross margin objectives.
- Direct Reports, 5%
Direct reports include category managers and several pricing analysts.
- Product Development, 5%
Provided merchandising, new product development, presentation and profitability for direct mail and e-commerce food gift business.
- Product Categories, 4%
Led marketing and pull-through activities for non-food product categories, including paper and disposables, supplies and equipment, and chemicals.
- Merchandise Sales, 4%
Created and reviewed merchandise sales, inventory and margin plans at Brand, Summary and Class levels, including in-season re-projections.
Most merchandising directors use their skills in "apparel," "gross margin," and "direct reports" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential merchandising director responsibilities here:
Creativity. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a merchandising director to have is creativity. Their role and responsibilities require that "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to generate new and imaginative ideas." Merchandising directors often use creativity in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "partnered with store operations and supply chain to reduce overstock inventory by 5%. "
Interpersonal skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling merchandising director duties is interpersonal skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "managers must deal with a range of people in different roles, both inside and outside the organization." According to a merchandising director resume, here's how merchandising directors can utilize interpersonal skills in their job responsibilities: "backed by excellent interpersonal skills and a commitment to customer service that has been described as second-to-none by employers. "
Organizational skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of merchandising directors is organizational skills. This skill is critical to many everyday merchandising director duties, as "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must manage their time and budget efficiently while directing and motivating staff members." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "develop overall creative vision and organizational strategy as applied to retail presentation within an integrated marketing division for all nordstrom outlets. "
Communication skills. For certain merchandising director responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "communication skills." The day-to-day duties of a merchandising director rely on this skill, as "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." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what merchandising directors do: "improved retail operations through flexible but efficient coverage and communication process. "
Analytical skills. Another common skill required for merchandising director responsibilities is "analytical skills." This skill comes up in the duties of merchandising directors all the time, as "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to analyze industry trends to determine the most promising strategies for their organization." An excerpt from a real merchandising director resume shows how this skill is central to what a merchandising director does: "developed inventory forecasts, demographic profiles, product line reviews and category analysis including sales, inventory, and growth initiatives. "
The three companies that hire the most merchandising directors are:
- Hudson Group
48 merchandising directors jobs
- Uline15 merchandising directors jobs
- Sysco5 merchandising directors jobs
Choose from 10+ customizable merchandising director resume templates
Build a professional merchandising director 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 merchandising director resume.
Compare different merchandising directors
Merchandising director vs. Partner
A business partner is responsible for providing strategies and recommendations on how the business will operate, increasing its revenues while sharing profits. Business partners must have extensive knowledge of how the current market industry works to identify the best decisions for the business. A business partner should also be engaged in suggesting new services and offers that the company might consider for its clients. Business partners must also keep the confidentiality of their partnering business administration at all times.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, merchandising director responsibilities require skills like "apparel," "gross margin," "direct reports," and "product categories." Meanwhile a typical partner has skills in areas such as "patients," "customer service," "healthcare," and "patient care." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Partners tend to reach similar levels of education than merchandising directors. In fact, partners are 2.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 10.6% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Merchandising director vs. Product manager
A product manager is responsible for ensuring product development, providing the best marketing strategies, and effectively handling the sales and marketing team. Product managers' duties include monitoring the market trends and conditions, identifying business opportunities and plan initiatives, and collaborating the product launch process with the appropriate departments. A product manager is also responsible for generating ideas on improving product features, determining timetables and reasonable pricing, and analyzing product sales. A product manager must have excellent strategic and decision-making skills to contribute to its growth and profitability.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, merchandising director responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "apparel," "gross margin," "product categories," and "merchandise sales." Meanwhile, a product manager has duties that require skills in areas such as "product management," "qa," "product strategy," and "project management." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Product managers earn higher levels of education than merchandising directors in general. They're 8.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 10.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Merchandising director vs. Senior vice president of marketing
A senior vice president of marketing is in charge of overseeing the efforts put into the marketing operations and programs, ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow. They typically collaborate with analysts and other experts to identify new marketing opportunities, design and develop projects, set goals and guidelines, delegate tasks, and report progress to the president and other executives. Furthermore, as a senior vice president, it is essential to lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from merchandising director resumes include skills like "apparel," "gross margin," "product categories," and "merchandise sales," whereas a senior vice president of marketing is more likely to list skills in "digital marketing," "analytics," "business strategy," and "svp. "
Senior vice presidents of marketing typically earn higher educational levels compared to merchandising directors. Specifically, they're 9.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.9% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Merchandising director 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.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between merchandising directors and business development managers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a merchandising director might have more use for skills like "apparel," "gross margin," "direct reports," and "product categories." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of business development managers require skills like "customer service," "crm," "healthcare," and "business relationships. "
The average resume of business development managers showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to merchandising directors. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 4.9% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.7%.Types of merchandising director
Updated January 8, 2025
