Director of Online Merchandising
OliveNation — Avon, MA
Position Summary
The Director of Online Merchandising owns what OliveNation sells, what it sells it for, and how it is presented across every channel — carrying full accountability for assortment strategy, product costs, selling prices, margins, and the on-site merchandising that converts traffic into orders. The role combines the sourcing and negotiation discipline of a traditional merchant with the analytics and site-optimization skills of an e-commerce category leader.
Read this carefully before applying: this is a hands-on, build-the-function role, not one managing an existing team. In Year One you personally source vendors, negotiate costs, brief the copywriter and designer, set prices, and push products live — a Director-level individual contributor who owns the strategy and executes it.
Reporting Relationships
Reports to: Chief Executive Officer
Direct reports: None
Partners closely with: Inventory Management, Purchasing, Marketing, Finance, Customer Service, Food Safety and Product Specifications
Potential future team: subject to results and company finances, a Product Development Specialist role would be evaluated around the twelve-month mark and, if approved, report to this position. Headcount additions must follow demonstrated growth in sales and gross margin.
Key Responsibilities
1. Assortment and Category Strategy
- Own the assortment - decide which categories OliveNation competes in, how deep each goes, and which channels each product is offered on.
- Build category plans around customer clusters and applications, not SKU velocity alone. Every addition must answer: which customer, which use case, which gap in the line, and does it cannibalize what we already carry?
- Launch 5 new products per month at a steady, predictable cadence — deliberately modest because you also carry pricing, margin, and site merchandising.
- Own the full product lifecycle from concept through maturity to phase-out — including repackaging, re-positioning, and clean discontinuation with sell-through plans that avoid write-offs and stranded inventory.
- Maintain the category taxonomy, navigation structure, and collections so the catalog stays shoppable as it grows.
2. Pricing, Cost and Margin Ownership
- Own price architecture by channel olivenation.com, Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and wholesale/commercial accounts.
- Set and defend gross margin targets by category. Review price, margin, and sales trend by SKU monthly and act on what the data shows.
- Build and maintain a working cost-and-price calculator so landed cost, freight, fees, and target margin are visible on every decision.
- Monitor competitor pricing continuously; price the products that set OliveNation’s price perception deliberately, not formulaically.
- Re-negotiate costs on existing products on a regular cycle — focused on the poorest and strongest performers — and switch vendors where a better cost, quality, or lead-time outcome is available.
- Keep product and inbound shipping costs in the ERP accurate at all times — margin reporting is only as good as this data.
- Approve promotions, coupons, and discount strategies and quantify their margin impact before and after.
3. Site Merchandising and Conversion
- Own the on-site shopping experience — category and collection pages, on-site search relevance, filters, sort order, badging, and the seasonal/holiday merchandising calendar.
- Set and enforce product detail page standards: titles, imagery, copy, specifications, pack sizes, allergen and nutritional information, and review coverage.
- Build and maintain cross-sells, upsells, bundles, kits, and recipe/tag associations that raise average order value.
- Partner with Marketing on keyword strategy, product positioning, and paid and organic traffic priorities.
- Track and improve conversion rate, average order value, revenue per session, on-site search exit rate, and PDP-level performance.
4. Marketplace and Channel Management
- Own assortment, content, pricing, and listing health across marketplaces — including buy-box competitiveness and suppression — and decide which products belong on which channels and which are held back.
- Understand and manage channel-level economics — referral fees, fulfillment costs, advertising, and returns — so channel decisions are made on contribution, not top-line revenue.
5. Sourcing, Negotiation, Communication and Supplier Development (hands-on)
- Personally source new domestic and international vendors; evaluate direct import opportunities and private-label programs.
- Negotiate cost, payment terms, minimum order quantities, freight allowances, and exclusivity where it creates advantage.
- Provide rolling three-month forecasts on time, and make sure Finance pays suppliers on time.
- Communicate proactively so suppliers see OliveNation as a partner, not a transaction — they should never be surprised by us, nor we by them.
- Maintain vendor scorecards covering cost, quality, fill rate, lead time, and responsiveness.
- Work with the Food Safety and Product Specifications teams on documentation, labeling, and regulatory compliance for every item brought in.
6. Launch Execution (hands-on)
- Run each launch yourself, end to end including item setup in the ERP and on the site, costs, pack sizes, weights and dimensions, channel flags.
- Brief and coordinate the Copywriter, Graphic Designer, Photographer, and Marketing Analyst so content and imagery are accurate, attractive, and on time.
- Publish to all applicable channels with channel-appropriate titles, content, and pricing.
- Track each launch’s first 90 and 180 days and report the success rate accurately.
7. Inventory and Availability (shared with Inventory Control)
- Hold out-of-stocks below 2% of active items and keep system inventory accurate within roughly 2% variance.
- Maintain 6–8 weeks of inventory coverage; directly imported items are the exception.
- Own inventory turns and return on inventory investment as merchandising metrics, not just operational ones.
8. Reporting and Building the Function
- Own the merchandising scorecard: net sales, gross margin ($ and %), turns, ROI, customer lifetime value, out-of-stock rate, launch count, and new-product success rate.
- Present a monthly business review to the CEO — what is working, what is not, and proposed changes for the following month.
- Document the process as you build it — sourcing criteria, launch checklist, pricing rules — so the function is transferable when headcount is added.
- If a Product Development Specialist is added, hire, train, and develop someone who can operate without close supervision.
First Six Months — Success Metrics
- A documented, defensible assortment strategy with clear add/keep/kill criteria.
- A functioning cost-and-price calculator, and accurate landed costs in the ERP.
- A steady 5 per month launch cadence with no missed committed dates.
- Measurable movement in gross margin percent on at least two categories.
- A written launch process good enough to hand to a new hire.
Qualifications
Education: Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Merchandising, or a related field. MBA a plus, not required.
Experience: 7+ years in merchandising, category management, buying, or e-commerce product management. Food, specialty grocery, or CPG background strongly preferred. Prior people management is a plus, but the first year of this role is an individual-contributor role.
Required skills
- Demonstrated ownership and success in a category P&L or margin line — not just execution against someone else's plan.
- Proven sourcing and negotiation track record with domestic and overseas suppliers.
- Excel expertise (advanced): pivot tables, lookups, cost and margin modeling, large data sets.
- Hands-on with an e-commerce platform (Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, or similar) and an ERP/inventory system; marketplace experience (Amazon Seller or Vendor Central, Walmart).
- Analytics fluency: GA4 or equivalent, and comfort building or reading BI dashboards (Power BI, Looker, Tableau).
- Superior professional written and verbal communication with vendors and internal teams.
Attributes We Care About
- Self-starter and genuinely independent — willing to do the work personally, not just direct it; we dislike micro-managing.
- Aggressive and comfortable owning sales and margin growth targets.
- Strong attention to detail and trusted to hit deadlines — makes few mistakes and catches the ones that happen.
- Great collaborator across marketing, finance, inventory, and customer service; manages up well and keeps the CEO informed without being asked.
- Friendly, can-do attitude; learns new skills and takes on more responsibility every year.
Working Conditions
Location: Avon, MA offices. Flexible hybrid schedule available after the initial six-month ramp period.
Schedule: Full-time, Monday through Friday
Travel: Occasional — vendor/manufacturer visits, trade shows (Fancy Food Show, IFT), and customer research
Compensation and Benefits
Base salary: $110,000 plus performance incentive tied to sales and gross margin growth. Target total annual compensation is expected to be approx. $125,000-$135,000.
Retirement: Contributions to Simple IRA after 6 months of employment
Medical: Health Insurance expense reimbursement up to $10,000 per year
Paid leave: Vacation, medical/sick days, and personal days per company policy
Probationary Period: First 90 days of employment
Pay: $110,000.00 - $135,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Health insurance
- Retirement plan
Application Question(s):
- Are you a US citizen and authorized to work in MA?
Work Location: In person
