Assistant Category Manager, Wellness

Company Description
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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 150 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

**Job Description**:
As the Assistant Category Manager, Wellness you will be accountable for implementing the vision, strategy, and direction within the Wellness categories, supporting and executing the overall portfolio product and strategic goals. Reporting to the Senior Category Manager, Wellness, this role is exposed to all aspects of category management including product and assortment innovation, buying, merchandising and brand/product marketing. A key aspect of this role is keeping a pulse on category, brand, and competitive performance, by understanding the latest industry trends to help ensure assortment relevancy and competitor advantage

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

- Meet and/or exceed budgeted sales plan and profitability goals within the assigned portfolio categories
- Support in the development trend right product assortments through a full multi-approval level line review process, managing all financial metrics including vendor profitability and exit strategies for aged inventory provisions
- Execute all go-to-market activities for new products and/or brands. Create documentation, build work back schedules and ensure timelines are met amongst the POD and any/all relevant cross-functional partners
- Use digital customer and market share data to build retail and online assortment to grow sales, reduce bounce rate, and increase online conversion
- Turn data into actionable insights to continually improve program, product and/or brand performance, processes, and creative strategy
- Develop and maintain best in class vendor partnerships focused on the core merchandising strategies of the business and strong negotiation skills
- Lead product education for both internal and external customers
- Provide support to internal customers through the quick resolution of Heat Tickets
- Ensure the completion of individual deliverables and adhere to team budgets, as applicable
- 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
- Challenge the status quo and consistently identify areas for improvement, diagnose issues and work to resolve them
- Act as the key liaison between the POD, Merchandising, Marketing and Digital teams within Indigo for owned businesses
- Support Senior Category Manager in any QA and/or Legal Review
- Effectively communicate category vision and strategy to all key internal stakeholders to ensure alignment and understanding of business priorities
- Work closely with marketing, digital and content teams to ensure omnichannel campaigns are cohesive and continually drive both new and repeat purchases
- Collaborate with others to drive flexible and iterative solutions to any roadblocks, 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
- Model Indigo’s beliefs and convey a positive image in everything you do
- 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
- Celebrate and encourage diversity

**Qualifications**:
WHO YOU ARE:

- Post-secondary education completed in business or related field
- University Degree with a Master’s Degree in Business or Marketing is considered an asset
- 3-5 years of work experience in a retailing, product development or category management field with progressive accountability
- Experience in the CPG/FMCG Industry is considered an asset
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook)
- A strategic thinker with strong entrepreneurial skills
- Strong influencing and c