Category/Merchandise Manger

Reports To: Chief Commercial Officer

Role Summary: The Category Manager is responsible for managing assigned product categories and delivering sales, margin, inventory, and customer experience goals. This role executes category strategies that strengthen market position, curate a high-performance product mix, support private label expansion, and leverage data to optimize pricing and inventory.

Primary Accountabilities: P&L Accountability: Manage assigned categories to achieve sales revenue, gross margin dollars, and inventory turn targets. Competitive Execution: Monitor major e-commerce and retail competitors; recommend and execute actions that strengthen Valley Vet’s competitive position while maintaining the specialized trust and authority of the brand. Digital Merchandising: Effectively collaborate with the e-commerce team to continuously improve the online presentation, searchability, and conversion optimization of your categories.

Major Duties: Strategic Assortment & Product Mix Portfolio Management: Curate a balanced assortment of national brands and high-margin private label products. Private Label Development: Identify assortment gaps and support the development and launch of Owned Brand products that protect margins and build customer loyalty. Trend Monitoring: Utilize external market data, vendor insights, and internal analytics to identify emerging shifts in the industry and recommend category actions. Lifecycle Management: Manage the entire product lifecycle from sourcing and onboarding to maturity and eventual liquidation/discontinuation. Pricing, Profitability & Intelligence Pricing Execution: Utilize pricing intelligence tools to monitor competitor movements and execute pricing recommendations and approved strategies that balance Top-Line Sales with Margin protection. MAP Governance: Monitor and maintain compliance with Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policies to protect brand integrity. Subscription Focus: Collaborate with marketing to identify, enroll and retain Auto-ship customers to increase Lifetime Value (LTV).Strategic Sourcing & Vendor Partnerships Vendor Planning: Build productive vendor relationships and participate in Joint Business Planning (JBP). Identify and negotiate opportunities such as promotional support, exclusivity periods, and first-to-market opportunities, escalating complex agreements as appropriate. Supply Chain Resilience: Work with vendors and the internal purchasing team to ensure supply chain diversity, mitigating out-of-stocks on critical supplies. Financial Negotiation: Improve backend profitability through negotiation of rebates, MDF/co-op (Market Development Funds), short-dated opportunities, and volume incentives, partnering with senior category managers on complex or high-impact negotiations. E-Commerce & Digital MarketingUX & Discovery: Collaborate with the e-commerce/marketing team to optimize site taxonomy, internal search ranking, and cross-selling (product recommendations) algorithms. Content Excellence: Collaborate with the e-commerce/marketing team to ensure all PDPs (Product Detail Pages) are optimized for SEO/GEO/AEO and conversion, enhanced imagery and dynamic assets, and soliciting User Generated Content (reviews/photos).Performance Marketing Support: Provide high-intent product information to the Marketing team for Paid Media Shopping, Social Ads, and Email flows. Catalog & Omnichannel (Retention)Catalog Evolution: Curate the Equine, Farm, and Pet catalogs/print pieces not just as sales vehicles, but as brand-building retention tools. Select high-ROI items that drive customers to the web. Unified Pricing: Ensure seamless pricing and promotional alignment across online and offline/print channels. Inventory & Operations Demand Forecasting: Utilize modern demand planning tools and historical trends to support forecasts for seasonality, disease outbreaks, and other demand shifts. Aged Inventory Control: Proactively partner with Purchasing to manage inventory levels and execute exit strategies for slow-moving SKUs with a strategic mark-down approach. Leadership & Community Engagement Team Collaboration: Partner effectively with Category Managers, Category Assistants, Merchandise Coordinators and cross-functional teams, sharing category knowledge and supporting a culture of data literacy, accountability, and agility. Industry Presence: Represent the brand at major industry trade shows and sponsorship events as requested.

Note: This role involves "hands-on" leadership, including setup and direct selling at select premier events to maintain connection with the core customer. Cross-Functional Agility: Collaborate closely across Category Management, Marketing, Warehouse Operations, and Customer Service (Call Center) to execute category priorities and resolve issues.

Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Marketing, Animal Science, or related field.

Experience: 3+ years in Category Management, Merchandising, Buying, or a related retail/e-commerce role. Experience working in a DTC e-commerce environment is strongly preferred. Knowledge of the Animal Health, Equine, or Farm industry is highly preferred. Technical Proficiency: Proficient Excel skills (Pivot tables, lookups, basic modeling and analysis).Familiarity with BI visualization tools (Sigma, Tableau, PowerBI, Looker) is preferred. Familiarity with modern ERPs and Pricing Intelligence software.

Soft Skills: Strong analytical and communication skills, sound negotiation ability, attention to detail, and the ability to adapt execution based on market data.

Physical Demands: (Trade Show & Operational)This role requires active participation in industry events. Must be able to lift up to 75 pounds (trade show setup/tear down).Ability to travel up to 15% (Trade shows, vendor summits), including weekends on occasion. Mobility to navigate large warehouse environments and expansive trade show floors.

Work Environment: Hybrid professional office setting with periods of warehouse interaction. Dynamic trade show environments (indoor/outdoor arenas).Professional and deadline-oriented environment in an office setting Interaction with staff, customers and vendors The employee occasionally works near a warehouse environment and must be cautious of moving forklifts, WAVES and other mechanical equipment

Additional Duties: Additional duties and responsibilities may be added to this job description at any time.