Ashley Damico

Senior commerce leader owning end-to-end strategy across product development, product life-cycle, post-purchase operations, logisitics partnerships, brand licensing, vendor performance, and platform execution for a high-volume DTC business.

• Spearheaded shipping carrier strategy overhaul, driving nearly $7M in annualized cost savings through renegotiation, carrier diversification and service-level optimization.
• Lead cross-functional ecommerce initiatives spanning merchandising, logistics, sampling and product teams.
• Optimized sample strategy and conversion by targeting geographic regions with longer lead times and automating expedited shipping, improving sample-to-order conversion rate by 20%.
• Lead development and launch of an exclusive motorization program, expanding premium offerings, improving attachment rates, and positioning the brand for long-term category leadership.
• Partner with Technology, Marketing, UX and Operations to lead Shopify migration merchandising strategy, ensuring assortment integrity, improved site conversion and scalable growth.
• Spearhead brand licensing partnerships and partner sourcing initiatives, delivering 175% growth in sales across licensed product collections.

• Head merchandise and vendor strategy for the company providing high-quality window treatments to 300K+ customers annually
• Manage an operating budget and a team of seven reports to effectively oversee 6,000+ active SKUs across 25 categories; continuously build and execute assortment strategies and programs that drive incremental growth
• Oversee total revenue and category growth for all categories and vendors with a high priority on scaling profit growth and delivering compelling product assortment and branding that bring stories to life for consumers
• Initiate product development to capitalize on trends and opportunities in order to achieve sourcing goal of adding 15+ new products each year; evaluate competitive proposals to determine best overall options for product categories
• Manage 15 international and domestic suppliers, including creation and management of all contracts, volume-incentive rebates, and money-back guarantees; partner with planning leads to create and monitor financial forecasts
• Analyzed and restructured the department roles to build upon each member’s strengths, generating 72% higher efficiency output YOY in FY2022; cultivate a positive working environment and maintain 100% employee retention rate
• Spearhead new hire onboarding, training, coaching, performance management, KPI monitoring, and succession planning; serve as Company Culture Committee Lead to drive implementation of the Employee Anniversary Program

• Promoted from Category/Vendor Manager and Merchandising Team Lead to drive and execute product assortment strategies
• Led merchandising operations and a team of Merchandisers and Product Development Specialists through entire product lifecycle; sourced, negotiated, and onboarded new suppliers while maintaining quality and IMU%
• Drove sales and growth that support financial and brand goals based upon understanding consumer and market; delivered key KPIs, including 90%+ average product star rating for programs at budgeted COGS and profit margins
• Implemented process improvement initiatives, including differentiated product tiering strategy to reach broader customer range; grew product output by 31% from new product build process and boosted profit by $6.4M in 2020
• Built a vendor report card system to accurately track performance and performed SKU rationalization and competitive pricing analysis to optimize assortment profitability; hosted annual vendor conference comprised of global suppliers

• Coordinated merchandise strategic planning and development for the Maryland nature-inspired home fragrance company
• Ensure accurate and effective development of highly saleable products and met profitability requirements for each account; coordinated products, delivery, resolution, and quality assurance
• Delivered research and analysis, concept development, product design and development coordination, sample approvals, testing compliance, and product finalization for several hundred products
• Aligned development cycle and timeline of Valueline branded, customized, and private-label products and programs

• Led merchandising operations and inventory tracking and forecasting for the plus-size clothing company
• Tracked and forecasted weekly source order demand and oversaw negotiations and executions of vendor charge-backs for lateness, shortage, overages, and quality; maintained and open purchase order terms, including changes
• Supervised the general administration of item setup, purchase order creations, and various other files; managed product inventories to minimize backorder and maximize profitability
• Analyzed selling history and sales trends against current sales to assist management with re-ordering merchandise; implemented company purchase order terms and conditions and revised company vendor manual