Samantha Akers
Salem,WI
Summary
Accomplished, committed and energetic e-commerce professional with 8 years of experience in the wholesale industry. Experience in partnering with internal/external stakeholders to drive merchandising and marketing strategies to achieve market penetration.
Overview
9
9
years of professional experience
Work History
Customer Development Executive
Essendant
Deerfield, IL
07.2016 - Current
- Partner directly with customers, sales, manufacturers and other cross-functional teams to provide cohesive merchandising and marketing solutions.
- Proactively plan, develop and implement marketing campaigns with e-commerce customers including Sam’s Club, Wayfair, Office Supply, Shoplet, BuyOnlineNow, ReStockit, Overstock, and Lowes.
- Responsible for promotional inventory analysis and projections, as well as post-appraisal campaign analysis to improve future promotional success.
- Analyze market, customer and Essendant sales data to develop insights to proactively optimize assortments and deliver effective marketing and promotions.
- Initiated customer site re-merchandising strategies to drive profitable growth through curated assortments with Sam’s Club, Wayfair, Overstock, iHerb, Home Depot and Lowes.
Assistant Merchandising Manager
Essendant
Deerfield, IL
08.2015 - 06.2016
- Managed and created custom website assortments for Groupon, Overstock, Shoplet, Fisher Scientific and VWR.
- Streamlined 12 themed micro-assortments to be utilized across the e-commerce channel i.e. Back-To-School, Shipping & Mailing.
- Supported Merchandising Managers in growing key customers by executing item setups, assortment enhancements, create/evaluate promotions where applicable and evaluate/enhance content on customer websites.
- Partnered with customers by creating promotional plans that fit product category seasonality and feature high performing items.
- Collaborated with dozens of suppliers by securing vehicles fees and negotiating item discounts to feature.
Merchandising Associate
Essendant
Deerfield, IL
12.2013 - 07.2015
- Executed item setups for customer’s website assortments: Walmart, Sam’s Club, Amazon, Target, Wayfair and VWR.
- Worked to better improve our team's processes via best practice documents for common tasks.
- Worked collaboratively with various internal stakeholders in order to provide product details for end customers and resolve any challenges in a timely manner.
- Maintained and managed multiple customer’s assortments with regular item reporting i.e. discontinued items, item number changes.
- Assisted with sales and marketing support activities including organizing and managing relevant data files, addressing customer product questions, and updating customer portals.
Merchandising Assistant
Essendant
Deerfield, IL
06.2013 - 11.2013
- Executed 100+ new product set ups, which gave knowledge in Item Spec, Supplier Portal and PAT system.
- Showed detail and attention with all miscellaneous projects that were assigned.
- Analyzed and submitted price changes, item maintenance requests and rebates.
- Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines with little notice, while still completing other tasks.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Business Management, Marketing
University of Wisconsin Parkside
Kenosha, WI12.2012
Associate - Business
College of Lake County
Grayslake, IL08.2011
Skills
Customer Service
Time Management
Team Building
Microsoft Office Suite
Collaboration
Organization
Listening
Adaptation
Analytical
Interests
Love to fish, bake pastries, watch baseball, snuggle my dogs and try black coffee from all over the world.
Timeline
Customer Development Executive
Essendant
07.2016 - Current
Assistant Merchandising Manager
Essendant
08.2015 - 06.2016
Merchandising Associate
Essendant
12.2013 - 07.2015
Merchandising Assistant
Essendant
06.2013 - 11.2013
Bachelor of Science - Business Management, Marketing
University of Wisconsin Parkside
Associate - Business
College of Lake County