Merchant - Experienced Graduates (January 2025 Start) - Wayfair

This is a Boston based opportunity with a 4 day in office expectation.

As a Merchant, you will develop, execute and drive annual and seasonal assortment strategies for your categories. In this role, you will be responsible for category ownership and product curation, influencing how your category comes to life across all Wayfair marketing channels (catalog, digital, social media, and Physical Retail), ensuring accurate product representation and appropriate shelf placement. As a Merchant you will foster strong cross functional relationships to ensure all strategies and goals are achieved, acting as the representative of the customer in strategic decisions on the cross-functional team. The Merchant will partner with teams across Brand Management, Category Management, Creative, Marketing, Analytics & Operations, and external suppliers to ensure the strategic vision is executed all the way to the customer. Leveraging both data-driven qualitative and quantitative insights, you'll make a direct impact on overall sales, Wayfair share gains, and inspire and empower customers to create a home just right for them.  

What you'll do on any given day as a merchant...

As a Merchant, you will build, curate, and maintain category assortment strategies for our marketing channels, inclusive of developing a shelf space plan and actively selecting and iterating on the product offering (own identifying and filling assortment gaps from strategic supplier catalogs). You will ultimately decide what products should be highlighted and amplified across all marketing channels with crisp business justification to support your selections and in alignment with key stakeholders. You will study the competitive market and collaborate with cross-functional partners in order to shape and solidify the direction for your category and to ensure it is competitive in product and price.  You are the product expert - you know our customer’s needs better than anyone else for your category and are constantly thinking about what tomorrow’s best sellers will be to continue to surprise and delight our target market.

Your success requires tenacity, agility, speed, an analytical mindset, collaboration, influence, and a competitive spirit. You'll use your executive presence to work with and influence stakeholders at all levels and navigate interesting, complex assortment challenges. You will own the performance results though regularly monitoring assortment health though various KPIs and OKRs. 

What You’ll Do 

• Build and maintain category assortment strategies, inclusive of developing a shelf space plan and actively selecting, developing and iterating on the product offering.
• Identify opportunities for category growth, utilizing competitive analysis, trend research, and internal performance monitoring as data points.
• Partner closely with Category Management, Creative, and Brand teams, as well as external suppliers, to determine how best to bring the selection to life in digital, print, and stores.
• Maintain a close pulse on trends and customer needs to identify new assortment opportunities. Find products that deliver compelling newness and have potential to be tomorrow’s best sellers.
• Own the financial outcomes for the performance of the products you placed on the premium shelf spaces. Regularly assess performance and revise assortment and shelf space allocation strategy as needed.  
• Challenge the status quo and always be on the lookout for ways to streamline and improve the efficiency of existing processes while effectively managing multiple stakeholders.
• Support market research opportunities for category growth, utilizing competitive analysis, competitor shopping, and internal performance monitoring as data points.
• Manage sample requests to our retail lab and inspect products for quality control.
• Travel 2-4 times per year to attend industry trade shows relevant to your categories to partner with strategic suppliers, visit Wayfair stores, and competitive shop.

What You’ll Need

Basic Qualifications

• 1-3 years of transferable experience in a corporate environment, including internship and co-op experience.
• Authorization to work in the United States without visa sponsorship by Wayfair now or in the future. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within a retail and/or omni-channel buying role with demonstrated growth trajectory of P&L size and scope of category/team responsibility.
• Experience buying trend-driven categories, curating assortments from a wide range of vendors and classifications, and developing compelling assortment presentations are all highly preferred.
• Strong ability to analyze data and think critically about the business, understand and interpret performance trends, and apply learnings to the business.  
• Strong creative sense, elevated taste level, and love of product.  A genuine passion for industry trends, product design, and home decorating is a plus.
• Personable and energetic communication/persuasion skills and ability to influence internal and external stakeholders to align behind and execute against a common goal.
• Capable of thriving in a high-growth environment in which defining clarity amidst ambiguity and operating in “scrappy start-up building mode” are everyday activities.  Demonstrated experience piloting and implementing new processes and hiring/staffing new teams are a plus.
• Self-starter motivated by the potential to define a creative and strategic vision and have an outsized impact within a team and company.
• Ability to work from Wayfair’s Boston headquarters 4 days per week (remote 1 day a week), with travel for competitor diligence, trade shows, and/or vendor meetings.

Possible Team Placements 

Specialty Retail Brands

Wayfair’s Specialty Retail Brands (AllModern, Birch Lane, Joss & Main) target the $60B specialty furniture market and are incremental to Wayfair LLC. These brands provide a tightly curated assortment of highly stylish and elevated quality products for the style-obsessed specialty customer.  SRB Merchandising teams own the full category strategy for relevant verticals on one of the three brands below:

• AllModern: AllModern is the destination for the best of modern design in a simple, streamlined experience. We believe good design should be the standard for all, not a luxury for the few – so we’re making modern simple.
• Birch Lane: At Birch Lane, we curate a thoughtfully handpicked assortment of furniture & decor that showcases our fresh take on traditional - unlike anything else in the marketplace. We strive to bring our customers a breadth of classic styles made relevant for today and attainable for everyone.
• Joss & Main: Joss & Main is a specialty retail brand catering to home decor enthusiasts. It is the ultimate style edit for home – a curated mix of the latest looks and trends in home furnishings, made attainable via fast, free shipping and great prices.

Wayfair's In-Office Policy:

All Boston-based corporate employees will be in office in a hybrid capacity. Employees will work in the office on designated days, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and work remotely the other 1 day of the week.

Why You’ll Love Wayfair:

• Time Off:
• Paid Holidays
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Health & Wellness:
• Full Health Benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision, HSA/FSA)
• Life Insurance
• Disability Protection (Short Term & Long Term Disability) 
• Global Wellbeing: Gym/Fitness discounts 
• Mental Health Support (Global Mental Health, Global Wayhealthy Recordings)
• Caregiver Services
• Financial Growth & Security:
• 401K Matching (Employee Matching Program)
• Tuition Reimbursement 
• Financial Health Education (Knowledge of Financial Education - KOFE)
• Tax Advantaged Accounts
• Family Support:
• Family Planning Support
• Parental Leave
• Global Surrogacy & Adoption Policy
• Professional Development & Recognition:
• Rewards & Recognition 
• Global Employee Anniversary Awards 
• Paid Volunteer Work 
• Unique Perks:
• Employee Discount 
• U.S. Bluebikes Membership
• Global Pod Outings
• Work/Life Balance:
• Emphasizing a supportive & flexible work environment that encourages a balance between personal and professional commitments 

Purpose & Inclusion at Wayfair:
At Wayfair, we pride ourselves on fostering an environment where every individual experiences a fair and equitable employee journey. We are committed to developing targeted resources that raise awareness around inclusion and eliminate barriers, ensuring Wayfair provides a fair and inclusive workplace experience for everyone.

Social Impact & Responsibility:
At Wayfair, we focus on helping people on their journey to home - specifically those who have lost their way from home. We do this by leveraging our best assets, such as collaborating with leading nonprofit organizations, coordinating in-kind product donations, empowering our employees to get involved through paid volunteer time off programs, and encouraging our customers to donate. This multi-faceted approach allows us to support communities in need in authentic ways that align with Wayfair's broader mission of helping everyone, anywhere create their sense of home.

Massachusetts Applicants: I understand that it is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.