Assistant Category Manager

**Company Description**
Dedicated to telling stories and creating experiences, Indigo is always looking for bright, energetic and customer-focused people who can help bring our exciting mission to life in one of our more than 170 Indigo, Indigospirit, Chapters and Coles stores across Canada. We offer a variety of exciting opportunities at our retail stores, distribution centres, and home office for people who share our passions and want to be part of a dynamic and enriching culture.

WHO WE ARE
- We love books and all things beautiful
- We are Canada’s Cultural Department Store
- Books are our heart and our soul and Great Books are JUST the Beginning

We play by the following rules:

- We exist to add joy to our customers’ lives each and every time they interact with us and our products
- Our job is to create joyful moments for our customers
- We treat each other the way we’d treat a valued friend
- We inspire each other to do our best work
- We seek to ignite creativity and innovation every day
- We give back to the communities in which we operate

The Assistant Category Manager is responsible for supporting and executing product category strategy, for both online and retail sales channels. This role effectively communicates and engages cross functionally to gain support for execution of product category plans and objectives.

**KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS**
- Sales
- Net Margin dollars and rate
- Turns
- Inventory
- Conversion
- Traffic
- NMROI
- Heat ticket resolution

**KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES**

Functional

Provides direct support to the Category Manager (CM) in the execution and administration of activities associated with the following:

- Support the CM to execute the category strategic goals in order to meet and exceed sales, margin and inventory targets.
- Support with day-to-day category administrative responsibilities, including item setup, reporting, store issue resolution, sample management and purchase order management.
- Support Open-to-Buy (OTB) process, ensuring appropriate stock levels
- Assist in product development and assortment planning
- Communicate and collaborate with Coordinator, Digital Onboarding as required to ensure timely article setup, online enrichment and publication to site
- Communicate and collaborate with online merchandising team to ensure that assortments are properly merchandised online and represented in a manner to maximize sales
- Prepare all required briefs for Online Merchandising and Creative Studio in regard to online photography and promotional needs, in a timely and efficient manner
- Collaborate with Planning & Inventory Management team to ensure sales and inventory plans are aligned with strategic initiatives
- Drive_ _category markdown strategy and execute the markdown process in collaboration with the Planning Manager to maximize sales and margin
- Seek out and identify new opportunities to grow and expand category by benchmarking competition and finding new categories, products and best practices
- Ensure timely response to all product quality issues and customer issues
- Create vendor meeting agendas, analysis and recaps
- Act as an advocate for the customer by placing them at the forefront of all decision-making and design processes
- Proactively identify and anticipate customer expectations and needs
- Embrace and seek out technology that creates high tech and high touch solutions for Indigo’s customers
- Challenge the status quo by consistently identifying areas for improvement, diagnosing issues and working to resolve them

People
- Collaborate with others to drive flexible and iterative solutions, quickly and easily
- Share technical knowledge with others and actively seek to learn from those more knowledgeable than yourself
- Help others see the impacts of their efforts and proactively engage other functions to get input
- Encourage others to freely share their point of view and be open to feedback

Cultural
- Model Indigo’s beliefs and convey a positive image in everything you do
- Celebrate diversity of thought and have an open mindset
- Take an active role in fostering a culture of continual learning, taking risks without the fear of making mistakes
- Embrace, champion and influence change through your team and/or the organization

**SCOPE**

Reports to: Category Manager

**KEY RELATIONSHIPS**

Internal:

- Finance
- Planning
- Marketing & Online
- Retail & Store Teams
- Creative Studio
- Supply Chain

External:

- Vendors

**Qualifications**
Work Experience / Education / Certifications
- Post-secondary education in business or related field
- Minimum 2 years’ experience in buying and category management or related field

Competencies / Skills / Attributes
- Proven ability to build productive business relationships with both internal and external partners
- Proven ability to negotiate effectively with external business partners
- Strong organizational skills with ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously while meeting deadlines