Merchandising and Retail Admin Assistant

Overview

The Merchandising and Retail Administrative Assistant plays a key role in supporting successful inventory management best practice. You will ensure all shops (including ecommerce) are well-stocked, contribute towards achieving sales and margin targets, raise purchase orders, liaise with suppliers and ensure timely delivery of merchandise. You will ensure data on our EPoS system is accurate and kept up-to-date, and assist the Finance team with the invoice payment process.

---

Job scope

Reporting into the Merchandiser & Retail Systems manager, you will provide administrative support across the retail team, contributing to retail profitability through accuracy and attention to detail, strong organisational skills, and the ability to multitask and prioritise workload.

You will support the merchandiser & retail systems manager in stock control, forecasting and ordering, and sales/ profit analysis.

---

Job description

*The full job description/person specification is available to download from our careers portal vacancy posting.

Merchandising

• Create weekly stock and sales reports, flagging best and poor performing lines, ranges and suppliers.
• Propose re-orders based on sell-through rates and forward cover, for sign off by the merchandiser & retail systems manager.
• Responsible for entering, revising and placing approved purchase orders on a timely basis and maintaining data integrity across internal systems for new stock and replenishment.
• Track and minimise shrinkage.
• Action and communicate price amendments to wider retail team.
• Track orders into the business to ensure stock arrives in a timely manner, chasing suppliers as necessary.
• Ensure all returns are processed efficiently and accurately.
• Act on decisions from range review meetings, delisting products and activating exit strategies as necessary.
• Liaise with the Buying team for product and supplier updates.
• Ensure data on the retail management system is correct and up to date.

Business administration and reporting

• Create reports as required for members of the Retail team, Head of Commercial and the Finance department.
• Record deliveries and process invoices for payments, working closely with the Finance team to ensure timely payment in-line with our payment terms.
• Ensure product deliveries are scheduled in accordance with site policy.
• Organise import shipments for repeat orders, taking into consideration shipping, tariffs, and duties payable.
• Assist with stocktakes, highlighting and investigating discrepancies.
• Ensure suppliers adhere to our ‘climate conscious’ sourcing policy, requesting appropriate documentation, accreditations and audit results.
• Prepare agendas, circulate information, and take minutes in meetings as required, circulating actions to attendees.
• Liaise with the eCommerce Manager to ensure a diverse range of merchandise is published via the Design Museum online shop and provide content for Marketing team/Social media channels to drive sales.
• Maintain effective and frequent communication with retail shop and stockroom teams, updating on delivery of new products and ranges and discontinued products, organising training, and collecting feedback.
• Be a proactive member of the team, bringing ideas and expertise to the weekly team meetings.

---

Person specification

Knowledge, skills, and experience - essential

• Strong attention to detail and a high level of accuracy and numeracy.
• Expert user of Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook software packages.
• Demonstrable experience of working in a fast-paced commercial environment.
• Strong organisational skills, ability to multitask and prioritise workload.
• Strong team player with great communication skills.
• Ability and experience of analysing data and drawing conclusions.
• Experience of working with retail management systems.

---

Salary: up to £26,160 per annum, dependent on experience

Holidays: 25 days per annum + Christmas eve (museum closed)

Hours: full-time, 35 hours/5 days per week

Location: Design Museum Kensington is the place of work, with a hybrid arrangement for office-based staff to work 60% at the museum and 40% remote.

---

Closing date: Sunday 14 September (midnight)

Interviews: Wednesday 24 September onwards

---

Application process

For all the latest job vacancies at the Design Museum, please visit our Careers page to apply via our online portal: https://careers.designmuseum.org/vacancies

If you encounter any issues while completing your application, please email peopleteam@designmuseum.org before the vacancy closing date. We will be in touch as soon as possible; (please note the inbox is monitored Monday-Friday).