What does a senior merchandising manager do?
The primary job of a senior merchandising manager is to monitor market trends for product design, levels, and pricing identification. Senior merchandising managers source, manage and curate the products and/or services and promotional materials of a company. They oversee the purchasing process of corporations. It is part of their job to negotiate with the company's suppliers. Their duties also include predicting the trends and demands of corporate inventory.
Senior merchandising manager responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior merchandising manager resumes:
- Implement and manage new POS server system at the store and district level.
- Maintain effective vendor partnerships to achieve high service levels, meet IMU and MMU goals.
- Complete comprehensive training program and manage cosmetics, jewelry, women's accessories, women's fashions and men's apparel.
- Manage indirect purchasing of commodities and services during mergers and acquisitions; measure supplier / category integration savings.
- Manage relationships with primary suppliers including monitoring and purchasing commodities, forecasting, marketing initiatives and quality control.
- Review sales projections, POS, & competition at retail to recommend assortment updates.
- Develop with clients digital/screen special prints and to oversee cad and strike offs for approval before production.
- Guide market right development towards an LRP of active and team apparel, project $5MM in sales growth by 2013.
- Initiate RFP bid and review procedures for print/promotional items, effectively e-sourcing individual jobs to select vendors.
- Develop comprehensive marketing plan including print and digital, utilizing negotiate funding to support events and driving additional revenue and margin.
- Launch sales planning team to generate daily KPI management base reporting.
- Deliver material improvements in comp sales, gross and net margin contributions, expense control and EBITDA.
- Eliminate unproductive brands, maintain volume, leverage scale to improve terms and IMU.
- Envision, coordinate and launch first-ever spin-off jewelry and accessories catalog.
- Manage the order flow via direct communication, major customers such as Costco, Sam's/Wal-Mart.
Senior merchandising manager skills and personality traits
We calculated that 7% of Senior Merchandising Managers are proficient in Direct Reports, Digital Marketing, and SR. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Creativity, and Interpersonal skills.
We break down the percentage of Senior Merchandising Managers that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Direct Reports, 7%
Developed and sustained as many as 44 direct reports to meet sales, profitability, and shrinkage operational objectives.
- Digital Marketing, 6%
Created digital marketing strategies, email campaigns, customer acquisition and retention initiatives.
- SR, 6%
Work with Executives, Sr. Directors/Directors and Category Managers to develop the Marketing concept for stores.
- Sales Floor, 6%
Directed sales floor activities including merchandising, inventory control and promotions.
- Product Knowledge, 6%
Piloted and implemented corporate directives for employee orientation, customer service excellence and product knowledge programs.
- Productivity Standards, 5%
Ensured support teams maintained stores productivity standards.
Common skills that a senior merchandising manager uses to do their job include "direct reports," "digital marketing," and "sr." You can find details on the most important senior merchandising manager responsibilities below.
Analytical skills. One of the key soft skills for a senior merchandising manager to have is analytical skills. You can see how this relates to what senior merchandising managers do because "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to analyze industry trends to determine the most promising strategies for their organization." Additionally, a senior merchandising manager resume shows how senior merchandising managers use analytical skills: "maximize profitability through gross margin analysis with heavy emphasis on advertised items and promotions. "
Creativity. Many senior merchandising manager duties rely on creativity. "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must be able to generate new and imaginative ideas.," so a senior merchandising manager will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways senior merchandising manager responsibilities rely on creativity: "established rapport with store operations to create positive feedback on merchandising, inventory and markdown control, and flow of goods. "
Interpersonal skills. This is an important skill for senior merchandising managers to perform their duties. For an example of how senior merchandising manager responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "managers must deal with a range of people in different roles, both inside and outside the organization." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a senior merchandising manager: "backed by excellent interpersonal skills and a commitment to customer service that has been described as second-to-none by employers. ".
Organizational skills. For certain senior merchandising manager responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "organizational skills." The day-to-day duties of a senior merchandising manager rely on this skill, as "advertising, promotions, and marketing managers must manage their time and budget efficiently while directing and motivating staff members." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what senior merchandising managers do: "initiated organizational systems for invoices, orders, return authorizations, payroll and collection packets. "
Communication skills. Another crucial skill for a senior merchandising manager to carry out their responsibilities is "communication skills." A big part of what senior merchandising managers relies on this skill, since "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." How this skill relates to senior merchandising manager duties can be seen in an example from a senior merchandising manager resume snippet: "developed and built long-standing vendor relationships through open communication, accountability and the fostering of synergistic partnerships. "
The three companies that hire the most senior merchandising managers are:
- Ernst & Young58 senior merchandising managers jobs
- Sysco55 senior merchandising managers jobs
- BlackHawk Industrial14 senior merchandising managers jobs
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Compare different senior merchandising managers
Senior merchandising manager vs. Market manager
A marketing manager is an executive who manages a brand or product's promotion positioning. Marketing managers analyze the trends in the industry and the demand for certain products and services. Typically, they attract more customers to purchase products and/or services and raise brand awareness through marketing campaigns. They research, identify, examine, and evaluate product demand. Also, they review advertising materials like print ads to boost the marketing strategy of the company and strengthen its campaign.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a senior merchandising manager are more likely to require skills like "digital marketing," "sr," "sales floor," and "productivity standards." On the other hand, a job as a market manager requires skills like "business development," "strong analytical," "excellent interpersonal," and "human resources." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Market managers tend to make the most money working in the manufacturing industry, where they earn an average salary of $85,133. In contrast, senior merchandising managers make the biggest average salary, $113,628, in the manufacturing industry.On average, market managers reach similar levels of education than senior merchandising managers. Market managers are 2.7% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.5% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Senior merchandising manager vs. Marketing services manager
A marketing services manager is in charge of overseeing a company's marketing procedures, ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow. Their responsibilities often include developing promotional strategies, assessing the performance of staff, coordinating different teams, managing the budgets, researching new marketing and client opportunities, analyzing data, and developing solutions to optimize marketing services and operations. Furthermore, as a marketing services manager, it is essential to lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals, all while implementing the company's policies and regulations.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that senior merchandising manager responsibilities requires skills like "sr," "sales floor," "product knowledge," and "productivity standards." But a marketing services manager might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "client facing," "integrated marketing," "email marketing," and "project management."
On average, marketing services managers earn a higher salary than senior merchandising managers. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, marketing services managers earn the most pay in the professional industry with an average salary of $119,296. Whereas senior merchandising managers have higher pay in the manufacturing industry, with an average salary of $113,628.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Marketing services managers tend to reach similar levels of education than senior merchandising managers. In fact, they're 4.6% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.5% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior merchandising manager vs. Web manager
Web Managers are responsible for managing websites for organizations. Their duties include managing website upgrades, testing for website performance, implement a strategy to increase web traffic and subscribers, troubleshooting website issues, and responding to security breaches. They create content audits as well as ensuring the website has brand strategy alignment. A Web Manager ensures website compliance with all regulations and keeps abreast of the best practice of the industry. They must possess good problem-solving skills and knowledge in search engine optimization.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, senior merchandising managers are more likely to have skills like "direct reports," "sr," "sales floor," and "product knowledge." But a web manager is more likely to have skills like "wordpress," "html css," "google analytics," and "html."
When it comes to education, web managers tend to earn similar degree levels compared to senior merchandising managers. In fact, they're 1.6% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.6% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Senior merchandising manager 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.
Types of senior merchandising manager
Updated January 8, 2025
