Visual Merchandising Manager

Coty is a world leader in beauty and home to an illustrious roster of cosmetic, skincare and fragrance brands. And our company has a mission: to challenge the definition of beauty, to encourage authenticity and celebrate diversity. Because to us at Coty, beauty isn’t about conforming to somebody else’s ideal. It’s about inclusion and liberating everyone to shine in their unique way.

**THE ROLE**

About the Role
You will lead design and visual merchandising efforts across the Prestige Distributor markets in accordance with all the brand guidelines for our entire portfolio of brands under the COTY Luxury Division. You will be the bridge between your Brand Team and the Regional/Global Marketing Teams to spearhead and execute best-in-class luxury retail excellence for our points-of-sale and products to support the achievement of our commercial KPIs. You will also hold project management responsibilities for our business expansion and acceleration plans.

**RESPONSIBILITIES**
STORE OPENING (PERMANENT MERCHANDISING)
- Work closely with Global and Local Distributor market teams in the development and roll out of all new permanent design plans, ensuring that guidelines are adhered to, and the relevant approvals are obtained from both Global Teams and Fashion Houses in a timely manner
- Ensure all VM collaterals needed for every store opening are planned, ordered and catered for by the distributor markets in close collaboration with the Business Development team.

LAUNCH DEVELOPMENT & ANIMATIONS (TEMPORARY MERCHANDISING)
- As part of the 360° launch plan and in collaboration with the Marketing team plan and assist local distributor market teams in terms of visual merchandising updates as well as temporary animations roll out, development and roll out of animation podium
- Communicate the specific needs of the distributor markets to the Regional/Global Teams during the submission and approval process
- Retro-planning for all launches and animations is required to ensure the Trade Planning Calendar and deadlines are well managed
- Ensure retail excellence and quality execution in line with the global guidelines and optimized consumer journey to maximize sales revenue and best in class execution

OUT OF THE BOX THINKING
- Initiate new and different VM solutions to optimize the consumer journey for consumers to discover our products, higher conversion to sales and assisting in the offering of services and excellent consumer experiences
- Optimize and upgrade our brand presence with sharing of best in class practice from our affiliate and other distributor markets to raise the bar for visual merchandising and counter attractiveness
- Initiate seasonal translation of KCPs in the counters to attract more consumers and drive higher sales

BUDGET MANAGEMENT, FORECASTING AND ADVISORY
- Support Distributor markets in the POSM offering orders from Global to ensure markets are equipped with all available tools
- Provide budget guidelines during the annual budget presentation
- Support distributor markets in the management of all institutional/permanent POSM forecasting for existing and planned new doors
- Monitor on a monthly basis all visual merchandising expenditures for all brands to ensure the money is spent according to the strategic planning
- Provide guidance on retail excellence and shopper centricity
- Creates a community of VM excellence within the distributor markets to raise the bar and strive for best in class execution and offerings

**REQUIREMENTS**
- You will need to have strong project management skills with a minimum of 5-8 years of experience in the retail industry and be able to simultaneously manage multiple projects across multiple brands
- Knowledgeable to manage different stakeholders well ie various distributor market teams within Asia, Global team based in Paris and Amsterdam and local design agencies and contractors
- You can work independently in a fast-paced working environment with tight deadlines
- You have experience working in global organisations, is a strong communicator and cooperates well with both internal and external stakeholders
- You are customer-centric and possess a good understanding of consumer journey and shopper’s experience
- You have a design background in merchandising or interior design with knowledge of design software (Photoshop, Illustrator and/or AutoCAD)
- You are proactive, think out-of-the-box and embrace a can-do attitude
- Good to have beauty experiences and love for shopper centricity

**WHAT AWAITS YOU**
- Fast paced environment with many projects to manage and different complexities to deal with
- Cross cultural experiences (exposure to Global and local teams, working closely together with teams from key markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, Philippines
- A blank page to leave your mark when it comes to retail excellence and store/ animation design and execution