Product Development & Merchandising Associate

Inked Brands is seeking a super-organized and energetic Product Development & Merchandising Associate to join our team in Bowling Green, KY! Inked Brands works with niche brands and content creators to build and scale product businesses. Our team is fun, creative, and willing to take smart risks. In this role, you’ll report to the Product Director and spend your days coordinating the planning and development of all our lovely products. You’ll need to be an amazing project manager, thrive in an environment where change occurs rapidly, and balance multiple projects with ease. Being flexible, observant, and learning quickly are skills that will help you succeed. This role will require organized communication with other departments and outside vendors to gather and evaluate information.

Responsibilities

• Manage Product Life Cycle: collaborate with different teams such as Product Design, Purchasing, and Marketing to ensure timely and accurate development of product launches.
• Project Management: the main responsibility of the Product Coordinator is to manage all product collections for their assigned brands with autonomy. It is their responsibility to plan, manage, execute, and finish projects, keeping up with deadlines.
• Delegate and prioritize tasks, manage resources, analyze problems, report progress, and analyze project performance.
• Keep projects progressing so that all product collections are produced to ensure maximum revenue growth.
• Report project outcomes and/or risks to the appropriate management channels and escalate issues, as necessary, according to project work plan.
• Work quickly and accurately within our project management systems. Manage collections within given timelines regardless of challenges; anticipate common hurdles and budget buffer accordingly.
• Product Expert: own all product specifications, so product is developed accurately, on budget, and efficiently. Cultivate all product knowledge for your assigned brands. Understand product functionality for efficient development and communicate all specs to assist with proper promotion and marketing.
• Point person for all products for assigned brands from concept to creation.
• Liaison between other departments for product specific questions from product specs, pricing, and overall knowledge of product progression.
• Sales Analysis: accurately pull sales and analyze sales from past collections to create product assortments that can meet revenue goals.
• Replenishment: point person for replenishment of products, so evergreen and best selling products are continually stocked.
• Manage requests from other departments on replenishment plans and can execute quickly to maximize on revenue goals.
• Product Research & Sourcing: follow market trends; identify needs of users, strengths of competitors, and make creative suggestions for improvement.
• Providing suggestions on new products to source that fit within the brand guidelines.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• Understanding of product development, pricing, and sourcing. An eye for corporate retail buying and/or planning; knowledge of markets and customer behaviors.
• Must be proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), specifically Excel. Project Management Information System experience is a plus.
• Project Management Skills- Manage competing demands with ease, bouncing between priorities and keeping other team members on schedule. Anticipate implications of deviation from schedule and problem solve. Coordinate with internal and external resources, ensuring that projects remain within scope, schedule, and budget.
• Strong Leadership Skills- Proven success working with other teams requesting different needs to keep the projects on tasks. Ability to lead meetings providing accurate information for product collections and sales.
• Time Management - Getting projects completed on time to help ensure the success of product collections.
• Organizational Skills– Demonstrates strong planning skills, prioritizing and managing conflicting demands to meet deadlines.
• Communication – Superb interpersonal and verbal/written communication skills. Builds relationships and works collaboratively in a team environment. Tailors’ communication to a specific audience, which spans a wide range including brand partners, vendors, and industry experts.
• Detail Orientation– Exhibits a high level of accuracy.
• Change Agility– Able to navigate successfully and positively in a fast-paced, high-growth environment where change occurs rapidly.
• Judgment and Decision Making– Considers the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one; looks beyond things accepted as “given” to suggest creative approaches. Maintains confidentiality and high ethical standards.
• Cultural Fit – Embodies and inspires a positive attitude, in support of our unique culture founded on the principles of excellence, respect, accountability, integrity, enjoyment, and diversity.