Valerie Hicks

Associate Merchant @Bath & Body Works

The Associate Merchant is responsible for supporting the execution of the creative product development, maintaining seasonal line plans and executing testing strategies for specific categories. • Supportive in the delivery of sales and profit growth by helping manage the commercialization of new product launches • Analyze consumer insights to help drive key brand and/or strategic initiatives and supporting in-store product launches • Work alongside Senior/Merchant on growth-driving brand strategy and planning, new product development, pricing, promotions / sampling, internal associate education and training, competitive patterning, performance analysis and hind-sighting, support the creation of internal presentations to executives and cross-functional teams, from concept brainstorming to drafting documents to preparing meeting materials • Responsible for accurately coordinating new development projects, including process paperwork, Cost Analysis and managing communication flow to cross-functional team members • Collaborate with Commercialization Services to monitor timelines, anticipate / communicate issues and drive meeting milestone dates on time • Support the Merchant in developing a line plan that represents the Brand and is aligned with the seasonal merchandise strategy • Analyze data in weekly business meetings to share result driving insights, customer feedback, and in-store merchandising opportunities • Be the category expert and \"go to\" person by their cross-functional partners • Support in meeting preparation, sample management, report evaluation and analysis and share their POV and recommendations based on current results and category strategy • Become the expert in competitive intelligence: understanding other retailer\'s assortment, pricing and promotional strategy • Visit stores regularly to proactively solicit feedback from customers and sales associates