Shari Roulin: Consultant in Pasadena, CA

Lead merchant for $100 million women's bottoms & accessories categories, managing a buyer, associate, and assistant; Worked with design team to develop bottoms business based on analysis of historical sales, trend direction and comp shop research; Enhanced partnerships with key heritage vendors by planning special collaborations and SMU's for key categories in bags, shoes and eyewear, resulting in increased comp business YOY; Sourced vendors for market-based product development in bottoms in partnership with buyers by attending market and trade shows; Traveled overseas to Asia 2x yearly, in partnership with design & development team, for oversight of key-item denim & woven bottoms production, working directly with vendors & agents on approvals

Lead business director & merchandising strategist for $48 million women's accessories & footwear businesses; Generated nearly 100% department revenue comp YOY for both brick & mortar and e-commerce businesses, driven by compelling assortments in jewelry, handbags and cold weather accessories; led product trend/development for department in alignment with & support of apparel collections; Developed line plan & assortment road map 6x seasonally for team; Led all product and business review presentation meetings, including seasonal presentations to field teams and corporate executive team; Worked directly with PD manager in the development and creation of leather handbags & footwear with FP label, organizing line plan & assortment/drop strategy

Created impactful & actionable online marketing messages, which helped to increase direct-to-consumer sales by nearly 20% over two seasons; Liaison between all merchants & marketing team, ensuring timely execution of messaging to customers; Traveled on-location to catalogue photo shoots to oversee styling & creative direction; Key partner with marketing team in relaying successful product sales, in order to increase consumer response to all email, home page and gateway messaging; Developed “Urban Renewal” concept online as new business opportunity generating $150k in first quarter as plus business; Proposed & laid groundwork for the collaborative brand initiative with extensive, travel, research and outreach to inspirational brands, which eventually became the “Around The World” concept (2008-2012)

Assumed responsibility for a down-trending bottoms department and was able to turn around the business within 6 months; Developed & managed a key-item business in the denim category resulting in a 10% increase of the denim business by the end of 2003 over the prior season; Effectively translated seasonal trends & competitive/trend analysis into a timely & profitable product assortment; Managed design communications by initiating & developing line plans for future seasons; Worked on trend concept & development with extensive travel/market research; Increased sales women’s bottoms category by over +5% in sales & profit in 2004 and a +13% increase in 2005; Developed & initiated a denim-focused initiative to maximize a key-item business in stores; Created and managed a marketing & label package for the private-label denim, effectively creating “LUX” as an in-house premium brand and “BDG” as a core UO denim brand which continues today; Presented the inaugural Creative Thesis project, eventually evolving into the creative merchandising dept. (promoted in 2006)