Sterling D'Sa

- Successfully grew market share, sales, and profitability over the years in the management of seasonal toys and large plastics while building a new category called Playroom.

- Planned and developed the category strategy by leveraging market share data, customer insights, and cross-functional feedback

- To enhance profitability, a comprehensive private brand program was developed, highlighting the key features and qualities of leading national brand products.

- Reviewed pricing, assortment, and space to optimize the category and ensure it meets customer needs effectively.

- Negotiated vendor contracts and trade spend funding to optimize working capital, while fostering strong, collaborative relationships with vendor partners.

- Collaborated with merchants and replenishment teams to influence purchasing decisions, driving the achievement of category financial targets.

- Delivered weekly updates on category sales performance, highlighting potential liabilities and providing recommendations for markdowns to ensure clean exits from those liabilities.

- Organized 30/60/90 meetings with merchants and replenishment teams to forecast sales, profitability, and inventory receipts.

- Collaborated with merchants to create walk-through decks that included current financial performance, future sales strategies, and bottom-up assortment analysis

- Developed category budgets informed by strategic goals and merchant insights

- In this role, I gained a strong foundation in category management through close collaboration with the senior director and senior merchant.

- Served as the marketing coordinator for the department, responsible for planning and reviewing weekly flyers

- Collaborated on special projects with the team, including the launch of Freshii and in-store sushi counters. Responsibilities included establishing vendor agreements and providing sales performance reports.

- Led stretch projects, such as managing the dips category, with responsibility for item selections and strategy to drive sales and increase market share.

- Played a key role in collaborating with store operations to develop store operating procedures for managing the home meal replacement category.

- Oversaw inventory flow and allocations to ensure products were directed to the right stores, optimizing category sales

- Held weekly meetings with suppliers to collaborate on forecasts and streamline supply chain optimization

- Collaborated with the merchant partner to plan and implement flow strategies for out of aisle displays and corporate events featuring top products.

- I provided weekly updates on inventory availability across all regions, highlighting areas where additional support or attention was required.