Product Manager

Location: Buffalo Grove, IL

In the past seven years, Zoro has grown from a group of 6 people working out of a 2,000 square foot building, offering fewer than 100,000 products to a group of 150+ working out of a 60,000+ square foot building, offering more than 1,900,000 unique products.

Imagine what you could help us achieve as a Product Manager!

The Product Manager is responsible for defining the portfolio strategy for an assigned “Product Line” that will provide our customers the most attractive and profitable product offering in the industry. In addition, the Product Manager will execute strategy through supplier management and product line execution while achieving year over year improvement in both revenue and profit.

 A day in the life of a Product Manager:

Product Portfolio:

• Design and execute a product line structure, for the assigned product line, that maximizes gross profit dollars and customer relevance.
• For the assigned product line, determine the role of private label vs. national branded products, the breadth and depth of the offering, and the number of price tiers, all to best drive top-line sales growth while maximizing profitability and asset utilization.
• Execute the development of a Zoro private label offering for the assigned product line.
• Assist in developing and execute tactics in the product line strategy that will increase purchasing scale and leverage among suppliers for Zoro’s business. Successfully drive these tactics and manage the cost structure of the product line.
• Work with external suppliers to acquire and maintain comprehensive product information for the assigned categories, including product specifications, product images and additional product content (e.g. videos). This effort will require partnership with Grainger’s product management organization as well as direct supplier interaction.
• Closely partner with the Searchandising and Zoro.com teams as they execute strategies that facilitate an industry leading customer experience in navigating through the assigned product categories.
• Closely collaborate with the Pricing Team to ensure product pricing strategies are implemented consistently and in support of the overall Zoro pricing strategies.
• Collaborate with the E-commerce team to maximize the reach and impact of the assigned product line in all advertising channels, including marketplaces, paid search and PLA.
• Collaborate with the marketing organization to ensure that the relevant strategies related to business issues or target customer segments are supported by the assigned product lines.
• Continually monitor the financial performance of the assigned product lines to ensure there is constant feedback into the success of the product line strategy and execution.
• Periodically present product line strategies for the assigned categories or sub-categories to leadership.

  Supply Chain:

• Work with Grainger Supply Chain partners, especially with the Distribution Centers, to execute product line activity in a manner that enhances the customer experience and the company’s inventory/logistics objectives.
• Work with several third party logistics firms that provide fulfillment services for products that drop ship directly from the manufacturer to Zoro’s customers.
• Partner with the product management teams from Grainger’s international businesses to access expanded product line offerings and create additional purchasing scale and leverage for the assigned categories.

  Supplier Relationships:

• Drive strategic direction of supplier relationships with Zoro, including relationship between supplier and eCommerce, Marketing Teams, and other applicable Zoro departments. 
• Responsible for documenting and maintaining contractual agreements between Zoro and its Suppliers that maximize scalable processes and minimize Zoro’s risk.
• Negotiate all elements of assigned supplier relationships to ensure lowest total cost of procurement, including: product cost, payment terms, etc. Leverage purchasing scale and competition among suppliers for Zoro’s business.

  Impact:

• The Product Manager is responsible for managing suppliers and product lines typically consisting of approximately $50M+ in Sales and 100,000+ SKUs with direct responsibility for revenue growth and gross margin profitability.
• The Product Manager is responsible for deciding:

• Zoro’s product offering in their assigned product lines;
• Suppliers used to deliver product offering. In part, the decision of which supplier use is based on competitive advantage, price point, availability and supplier performance;
• Whether products will be stocked in inventory or delivered to our customers using drop-ship only.

To be successful in this role:

• Bachelor’s Degree required.

• 3-5 years of experience in related field preferred.
• Experience working on and building large product assortments for e-commerce channels and customer requirements with Supply Chain, product information, and marketing strategies.
• Proven ability to execute appropriate processes and decisions across an organization. 
• Demonstrated experience in driving results through the execution of product line tactics, including SKU selection and supplier negotiations.
• Demonstrated ability to embrace change, demonstrate agility in relation to change.
• Domestic and possibly some international travel required approximately 10% of the time.

Zoro is an Equal Opportunity Workplace and an Affirmative Action Employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.

View our open positions at:

http://zoro.jobs/

Meet some of the skulk at:

http://www.zoro.com/bios