This Freelance Merchandiser will be responsible for independently developing, sourcing, and curating compelling and profitable product assortments for our clients. Negotiate and develop strategic supplier relationships. The merchandiser must earn the trust of internal and external customers by building assortment strategies that deliver creative and profitable products that represent the clients’ brands and speak to the end customer. Responsible for developing direct reports.

BDA’s ideal merchant is ambitious in nature, detail-oriented, comfortable working in cross-functional teams, and passionate about the retail and e-commerce industry. They are organized and adept at time management skills.

EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent combination of work and experience.
• Minimum 3 years of retail buying, product development, merchandising or planning experience.
• Custom cut & sew experience preferably in active apparel or knits
• Fluency in MS Office suite including Excel, Word, PowerPoint.
• Smartsheet experience a plus.
• Oracle experience a plus.

JOB SKILLS & TRAITS:

• Experience initiating, recommending, and implementing merchandise strategies.
• Strong understanding of and ability to apply market intelligence.
• Understanding of retail and the service environment.
• Experience identifying and interpreting product trends.
• Experience analyzing and applying consumer data.
• Track record of building profitable assortment plans.
• Skilled at cross functional influence.
• Experience working with accounts or retail stores to deliver profitable and relevant assortments.
• Works and communicates effectively with cross divisional leadership.
• Actively demonstrates managerial courage and is an advocate for their teams.
• Consensus building skills - Ability to persuade co-workers of the benefits of positive changes.
• Clear and effective written and verbal communication and strong interpersonal skills.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Define seasonal product strategies that identify future opportunities and trends.
• Ability to take current trends and translate into creative product.

• Gather new/relevant trend info from WGSN sites in preparation for new line development.
• Negotiate, build and source strategic and profitable product assortments.
• Independently drive sales through the selection of product, pricing and return on investment.
• Help assort styles/silhouettes based on past selling history/sales goals/season.
• Help select color standards within seasonal color stories.
• Request graphic development and review with design team.
• Review tech packs for accuracy with design team
• Review lab dips with designer.
• Work with team to determine cost targets, MSRP and quantities based on past SKU’s/like items.
• Attend fit reviews make comments and take images as needed.
• Send any development samples or lab dips to client.
• Review TOP samples for accuracy and send to client add to sample library.
• Use current and historical data to evaluate what is working effectively or not and create actionable insights that inform the line architecture.
• Demonstrate analytical and critical thinking and how to apply to the business.
• Understand assigned clients’ brands and identify products that represent and target their end customer.
• Run weekly merchandise status calls with clients and internal WIP meetings.
• Ensure successful product line presentations to clients.
• Use data and influencing skills to gain partnership from internal partners and clients on assortment strategies to ensure profitability.
• Share productivity of assortment with accounts and internal partners.
• Confidence and ability to articulate and sell a concept to a business team.

• Oversee day-to-day activities for product launches/refreshes.
• Responsible for areas including compliance, quality, and operational metrics (metrics including compliance, alliance partners, product margin, etc.)
• Negotiate buying terms with suppliers (price, quantity, quality, delivery, etc.).
• Oversee the execution of the assortment launch. 
• Build/update product status smartsheet for tracking – internal/external views

We are pleased to share the hourly pay for this position $40.00 an hour. If you are hired at BDA, your compensation will be determined based on factors that may include geographic location, skills, education, and experience. In addition to these factors, we believe in the importance of pay equity and consider internal equity of our current team members as a part of any offer. In the spirit of pay transparency, the range listed is the full base salary range for the role and hiring at the top of the range would not be typical, in order to allow for future salary growth. The range listed is just one component of BDA’s total compensation and rewards programs, which includes: robust PTO; vacation, a paid volunteer day, holidays and summer Fridays, Benefits; medical, dental, vision, life, and AD&D insurance, 401k; tuition reimbursement, mental health and financial wellness programs and professional development opportunities including tuition reimbursement. Certain revenue-generating positions may be eligible for incentive compensation.