Brandy Schmidt Email & Phone Number

Motivates and develops a team of 118 regional and district level leaders across the country to create and implement operational processes within the Services division of Ulta Beauty.

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Lead and developed a team of 10 district level managers across Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana to implement processes within the Services division of Ulta Beauty

Chicago, Il

My latest endeavor with Macy’s holds me accountabile for driving sales of $660M throughout the North Central territory (7 districts and 120 stores). This overarching objective encompasses a focus on sales growth through cross-functional development of best practices as well as intentional coaching, training, and development of our 7 DM’s. By engaging in these core functions I am able to lay the framework for widespread understanding of effective execution and thus, drive sales growth and the customer experience.Success in this role is further bolstered by involvement in details from vendor management and in-store presentation planning to regional data analytics and customer segmentation. Since assuming this role, my team and I have achieved the following: • Expansion of business including MyStylist and Active apparel space.• Management of 20+ external vendors that account for all Ready-to-Wear brands carried in Macy’s.• Introduction of localized store plans based on the regional customer’s needs and desires. • Ranking of 95% in leadership categories for 2016 and 2017 employee engagement surveys.

Chicago, Il

Under Macy’s Merchandising Group I oversaw Private Brand regional sales and the merchandising of all retail products. To do so effectively though, I first engaged in a great deal of rebranding and restructuring, which resulted in a better-equipped team, on-budget financials, the gaining of stakeholder support, and positive brand relations. After engaging in reform activities, I turned my attention to refining visual and product merchandising methods. With a concentration on localization and customer segmentation opportunities, my team was able to turn around struggling sales and see positive comp growth. My time in this role was highlighted by: • Achieved on-budget status within my first year with additional +1% comp growth (only territory out of 8 to do so in 6 years). • Improved placement of Private Brands throughout top performing territory locations. • Improved relations between Private Brands and North Central region.

Chicago, Il

At the core of my success in this role was the intimate knowledge of our customers. As a consumer expert, I shaped merchandising efforts at all levels. My understanding of our customer’s needs and desires along with a knowledge of regional events and historical trends led to targeted, effective merchandising strategies. My passion for customer segmentation and localization started years prior to this role, but was truly cemented here. I was able to see the profound impact this information can have in the retail industry. My time in this role was highlighted by: • Leveraged localized knowledge on prom season to achieve a posted $950K increase over LY, on top of another $700K increase. • Created the “T-Zone ethnicity tag” as part of a multi-year project involving data analytics to get to know our customer better.

Chicago, Il

At the District Merchant level I was highly involved at each store with training and mentoring team members (from associates to store managers) in an effort to empower all staff to make strategic merchandising decisions. By providing individuals with the tools to analyze sales data and apply best practices, I was able to create a ripple effect that positively impacted overall district sales.

Chicago, Il

As a liaison between our Central buying/planning teams and the retail stores, I had a 2-pronged responsibility. The first was to relay information from the buying/planning side to retail stores on key product and merchandising concepts. The second then was to collect and analyze sales data from retail stores to help buying/planning teams develop category strategies.

Chicago, Il

Prior to and during Macy’s acquisition of Marshall Field’s in 2005, I was involved in visual merchandising of all retail products, which was complimentary to previous work with Express as a Regional Visual Manager. From an in-store presentation perspective, I was accountable for everything from signage and pricing execution to floor layouts and retail space construction.

Chicago, Il