Jeff Samson Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Il, Us

Chicago, Il, Us

Chicago, Il, Us

Chicago, Il, Us

St. Louis, Missouri, Us

Responsible for establishing a merchandising strategy including purchasing, assortments, pricing, life cycle management and marketing for a $90M area with approximately 1000 stores. Managed 15 subclasses and over 40 vendors while leading a team of Business Planners, Location Planners, Allocation Specialists and Buying Representatives to ensure their focus was always on the merchandise strategy.• Led a 12-month initiative to completely overhaul the Children’s assortment to align closer with marketplace trends and adults; adjusted vendor mix, increased SKU counts, developed new pricing strategy and exploited key fashion trends. Saw immediate results with sales growth +20% and margin +10%.• Managed vendor relationships daily to ensure plans were in place to maximize sales and profitability while managing the risk on the back end. Resulting in receiving the Merchant of the Year Award from the Skechers Kids Division for delivering the #1 performance of all their retailers with a sales increase of 24% and margin improvement.• Implemented a new merchandising strategy to grow our Children’s Non-Athletic business online; including reduced SKU counts, adjusted inventory levels and established a pricing strategy. This strategy produced sales growth +30% and pushed the web penetration higher than the total store.

St. Louis, Missouri, Us

Responsible for the planning, merchandising and buying to drive profitability and sales growth for this$125M business. Managed 5 subclasses with assortments for over 1000 retail locations and developed solid working relationships with over 30 vendors. Led a team of 8 comprised of Business Planners, Location Planners, New Store Specialists, Allocation Specialists and Buying reps to ensure we would deliver the planned strategy.• Maintained partnerships with over 30 vendors proving critical as industry trends shifted to more casual/comfort silhouettes. Partnered with Skechers to switch our assortment to 100% Relaxed Fit product over a 6-month period resulting in a $5 AUR increase and an 8% increase in GM$.• Received the Merchant of the Year Award from the Skechers Work division for delivering the #1 sales performance across all their retailers with a sales increase +10%.• Established team collaboration starting with conveying the category vision to all members to ensure that all team members were proactive in mitigating issues and maximizing opportunities.

St. Louis, Missouri, Us

Led a team of 3 Associate Buyers and 2 Buying Representatives for a $30M business while maintaining relationships with over 100 vendors. Partnered with the Direct to Consumer team to drive sales andconversion at the style/category/brand/trend levels.• Spear headed the development and growth of the drop ship model for shoes.com, where orders for select vendor items were fulfilled directly by the vendor to the consumer; resulting in reduced inventory liability and operational costs associated with these items.

Dublin 2, Ie

As a member of the Retail Consulting Workforce I was responsible for managing and delivering large/complex Retail Software implementations for major retail clients (Office Depot, AAFES and Best Buy). Led a team of 10 through the business analysis and design phases as well as planning and executing the QA testing. • Received a Letter of Appreciation from the Major General, USAF Commander at AAFES for outstanding performance for the planning and execution of all aspects of testing for the retail software implementation.

Established the merchandising strategy including all assortment, buying, allocation and analysisfunctions for a $60M business with over 50 retail locations. • Earned the Buyer of the Year Award in 2004 for delivering the top performance in the Home Store Division. Worked closely with vendor partners to reduce costs on key programs across multiple categories which allowed us to promote at volume price points while maintaining profitability.

Assisted in all merchandising, assortment and analysis functions across multiple areas of the Home Store while working for 3 different Buyers and building relationships with over 75 vendor partners. • Earned the Assistant Buyer of the Year Award in 2002 for creating a merchandising strategy in our Electronics Division that included product from new vendor partners and a new pricing strategy, resulting in record sales and gross margin.