Lead Bookseller - Visuals & Merchandising

Description

About Lovestruck Books & Cafe

Lovestruck Books & Cafe is a vibrant community hub in the heart of Harvard Square where the love of literature meets the art of hospitality. As a romance-focused independent bookstore, we are a space grounded in inclusivity, joy, and connection. We celebrate love in all its forms, offering a welcoming, highly curated retail experience and a dynamic, celebrated events program that connects readers with their favorite authors and a passionate community.

Role Snapshot

We are looking for a highly organized, detail-obsessed retail professional who loves translating creative visions into beautiful, physical realities. Lovestruck Books & Cafe is seeking a Lead Bookseller to join our team as a key floor leader and visuals professional.

This supervisory role serves as the operational anchor for our evening team, maintaining our high standard of customer service, safety, and store organization. This role has a strong dual focus on visual merchandising. You will work closely under our Assistant Manager of Visuals and Merchandising to help execute eye-catching displays and planograms. As part of our leadership team, collaborate with and support the events team during in-store and offsite events, while supervising store operations and leading the closing shift.

This is a premier role for a creative, detail-oriented leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment and is excited to craft memorable experiences for our community during our most active hours.

Requirements

Key Responsibilities

Shift Supervision & Floor Operations

• Operational Leadership: Supervise evening floor staff, serving as the primary point of contact for staff needs, operational troubleshooting, and resolving escalated customer service issues with grace and diplomacy.
• Store Closing Procedures: Own evening operations 3–5 nights per week. Ensure executed task lists, cash drawer reconciliation, and final building lock-up with accuracy and efficiency.
• Performance & Standards: Keep the floor energized and focused. Direct floor staff on accurate and efficient task completion, ensuring booksellers are proactively assisting guests, keeping shelves neat, and maintaining store presentation standards.
• Safety & Policy Adherence: Act as the designated floor manager during shifts, ensuring safety protocols, security procedures, and store policies are consistently followed by staff and visitors.
  
  

Visual Merchandising Execution

• Planogram & Display Support: Partner closely with the Assistant Manager of Visuals and Merchandising to execute seasonal themes, display updates, and planograms.
• Creative Curation: Use your creative eye to help design, construct, and maintain highly engaging tables, window displays, and endcaps that highlight our inventory and appeal to our romance community.
• Stock Maintenance: Ensure featured visual sections remain fully stocked, organized, and visually appealing throughout your shifts. Proactively communicate low inventory of featured titles to the purchasing/inventory team.
  
  

Event Support & Collaboration

• Floor & Coverage Management: Ensure the retail sales floor continues to run smoothly and professionally during evening events. Manage retail coverage so that customers can shop seamlessly while events are underway.
• On-the-Floor Assistance: Provide collaborative, on-the-ground support to the Events team as needed. Actively participate in the lifecycle of store events, including physical setup and breakdown (moving furniture/displays), guest check-in, providing on-site assistance to ensure events run smoothly, and more.
• Safe Environment: Partner with the event staff to maintain safety, capacity limits, and clear pathways on the sales floor during high-volume event conditions.
  
  

Project Management & Organization

• Detail-Oriented Organization: Maintain clean, structured back-of-house storage for merchandising materials, fixtures, supplies, and deliveries.
• Task Execution: Track, prioritize, and manage daily floor tasks, shifting staff focus as needed to complete restocking, cleaning, and display resets on schedule.
  
  

What You'll Bring

• Supervisory or Leadership Experience: 1–2 years of retail, hospitality, or customer service experience, with previous supervisory, keyholder, or shift-lead experience preferred.
• Strong Interest in Visual Merchandising: A creative eye and passion for visual display work. Prior visual merchandising experience is a major plus, but a strong desire to learn and execute planograms under direction is required.
• Project Management Skills: Proven ability to manage multiple small projects simultaneously, follow detailed guidelines, and keep team tasks organized.
• Extreme Attention to Detail: You take pride in aligned book spines, accurate cash handling, flawless checklists, and a clean store environment.
• Reliable Evening/Weekend Availability: Ability and willingness to work a schedule centered on evening shifts 3–5 days per week, including Friday and Saturday nights, to anchor the store's peak hours and events.
• Calm Under Pressure: Excellent interpersonal skills with a proven track record of handling high-volume retail environments or busy events with grace, authority, and a solution-oriented attitude.
• Literary Passion: A genuine enthusiasm for books, community-building, and creating a joyful environment for romance readers.