Lauren Slatter
New York,New York
Summary
Strategic merchant & product strategist with diverse experience across multiple product categories over 17 years. Key strengths include building assortment & product strategy, productive relationships, leading high-performing cross-functional teams, navigating complexity, and building efficiencies, always with a customer focus. Proven ability to consistently maximize bottom-line results, while maintaining brand integrity & identity.
Overview
12
12
years of professional experience
Work History
Director of Merchandising, Boys
Gap
04.2022 - 05.2023
- Create and drive the strategy & assortment for Boy Gender [Boy, Toddler Boy, Teen Boy] across the Globe.
- Lead a dynamic cross-functional team to efficient decision-making in service to our customer
- Provide clear, concise communication with cross-functional team & key stakeholders across the Globe including International Partners & Senior Leadership team
- Gain alignment from Senior leadership on the Global and North America Assortment
- Distort time end effort against strategies with the biggest impact on the business
- Continually maintain an in-depth knowledge of the retail landscape and customer to identify ever-changing product needs and stay ahead of white space opportunities
- Proved successful working within tight deadlines and fast-paced atmosphere.
- Used critical thinking to break down problems, evaluate solutions and make decisions.
- Developed productive relationships with key business stakeholders
Director of Merchandising, Mens
Gap
06.2017 - 04.2022
- Created and drove the strategy & assortment for Men's Knits, Fleece, Active, Graphics & Sweaters
- Lead a dynamic cross-functional team to efficient decision-making in service to our customer
- Provided clear, concise communication with cross-functional team & key stakeholders across the Globe including International Partners & Senior Leadership team
- Gained alignment from Senior leadership on the Global and North America Assortment every quarter
- Distorted time end effort against strategies that yielded the biggest impact to the business
- Continually maintained an in-depth knowledge of the Mens retail landscape and customer to identify ever-changing product needs and stay ahead of white space opportunities
- Re-launched Gap Logo Hood, now a top program in Men's/Brand
- Optimized core t-shirt programs, now top program in Men's/Brand
- Managed a team of 2 Merchants
Senior Merchant
Hollister Girls
12.2015 - 06.2016
- Drove Assortment Strategy & product line architecture for categories of responsibility
- Led a dynamic cross-functional team [Design, Planning, Sourcing, Marketing, Visual Merchandising, DTC] to plan for business strategies in upcoming seasons by influencing product development, promotions, pricing, buying, product placement, and trend
- Analyzed Sales – Became the expert in current selling analysis and historical selling knowledge across all sales channels to drive growth and meet/exceed financial goals
- Customer Analysis – Intimately understood customer preferences and interests by observing shopping patterns, consistently shopping competitors, and monitoring social/media platforms
- Trend Analysis - Identified emerging fashion trends in the market by monitoring fashion weeks, runway shows, blogs, aspirational brands and media platforms
- Interpreted emerging ideas in the market to customers' taste
- Presented to Senior Leadership - Lead and contributed to presentations of selling analysis, business strategies, style information and trend ideas to our Brand Presidents and cross-functional partner leadership in weekly and milestone meetings
- Team Management – Owned training, development and career path development for a Merchant & Assistant Merchant
Senior Buyer
Donna Karan
07.2012 - 09.2015
- Oversaw the development, execution and communication of seasonal merchandise strategies/assortments that met financial plans
- Accountable for sales results, inclusive of gross sales, net sales, gross margin and sell-through results of all DKNY Apparel (Including DKNY Pure, DKNY & DKNY Jeans) for Men's and Women's
- Responsible for seasonal product assortment in all freestanding DKNY retail stores in the United States, DKNY.com & United Kingdom
- Developed brand appropriate product assortments consistent with brand image incorporating product trends, historical sales analysis and field input
- Created product assortments that integrated brands and balanced price points while meeting financial goals
- Presented seasonal assortment to senior management for approval by developing presentation structure, content and ensured appropriate analysis is completed
- Identified business risks in-season through analyzing sales performance and gathering marketplace/trend information
- Identified consumer-driven trends and make recommendations to
- Met consistently with the Merchandising & Design team to positively impact subsequent seasons
- Identified and formulated Retail Exclusives package with Senior Management & Global Merchandising team
- Continually formulated and evaluated all pricing strategies in both the United States & United Kingdom for the retail stores & DKNY.com
- Analyzed department strategies in-season when necessary and provided appropriate and timely direction to key partners in order to react quickly to customer and business trends
- Maintained a keen knowledge of the industry through rigorous competitive analysis and frequent store visits
- Conducted seasonal in-store product knowledge seminars for retail stores
- Worked in partnership with visual team to create strong visual merchandising sets in order to drive sales forward
- Communicated with senior management (Creative Director, President & Global Merchandising team) regarding seasonal best and worst sellers, and made product-line suggestions for future seasons.
Global Merchandising Manager
Diane von Furstenberg
05.2011 - 07.2012
- Partnered with Director, Merchandising & EVP, Merchandising in creation and communication of seasonal line plans that drove the commercial business needs
- Partnered with Director, Merchandising & EVP, Merchandising to present & review seasonal line plans and align on seasonal development needs
- Partnered with Director, Merchandising & EVP, Merchandising to develop and communicate robust product strategies that identified & addressed key business opportunities
- Partnered with Director, Merchandising to determine retail price positioning in all product categories
- Partnered with Director, Merchandising to develop the seasonal product flow in order to optimize gross sales & sell thru for RTW
- Developed seasonal product flow and strategy for Soft Accessories Division in order to optimize sell thru and minimize in-season risk
- Consolidated and analyzed the global buys from retail and wholesale to identify opportunities; created and communicated executive summaries and recaps
- Partnered with Planning department to drive & develop in-season reporting
- Ensured all metrics, specifically sales, & turn are logical and enabled DVF to drive and achieve product strategies and financial expectations
- Understood the assortment strategies and price positioning of the competition and pro-actively communicated potential opportunities to senior management and Design team as needed
- Continually stayed abreast of the competitive landscape and trends
- Communicated competitive analysis in order to inform product strategy
- Developed & implemented seasonal training and product knowledge materials to Global Retail staff
- Partnered with Director, Merchandising to engage cross functional partners across Retail and Wholesale to gather feedback and insights based on the assortment in development
- Partnered with Director, Merchandising to communicate feedback, market requests and general product requests to Design to ensure commercial needs are met
Education
Boston University
Boston, MASkills
- Assortment Strategy & Planning
- Inventory Management/Strategy
- Strategic Thinking
- Long Range Planning
- Process Improvement
- Verbal and Written Communication
- Problem-Solving
- Relationship Building
Timeline
Director of Merchandising, Boys
Gap
04.2022 - 05.2023
Director of Merchandising, Mens
Gap
06.2017 - 04.2022
Senior Merchant
Hollister Girls
12.2015 - 06.2016
Senior Buyer
Donna Karan
07.2012 - 09.2015
Global Merchandising Manager
Diane von Furstenberg
05.2011 - 07.2012
Boston University
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