Merchandise Director

ABOUT RIXO

RIXO is a London-born womenswear brand loved for its original in-house prints, distinctive design and joyful, feminine spirit. We've built a loyal, UK and growing international following of women who come to us for the pieces they feel their best in, and we're now at one of the most exciting moments in our story.

We're growing RIXO into a complete wardrobe brand. That means building out categories our customers love, so that RIXO is there for every part of her life, not just the special moments. We're looking for a Merchandise Director to help lead that growth with the same creativity and commercial ambition that built it.

ROLE PURPOSE

Reporting to the Creative Director, the Merchandise Director is RIXO's commercial product leader and owns trading, stock and exit margin performance across ecommerce, retail and wholesale. They lead the weekly trade, own the product decisions and actions that come out of it, and are accountable for the results.

Alongside that trading discipline, we're looking for someone strategic, forward-thinking, product-focused and creative: a merchandiser who understands the RIXO customer deeply, spots opportunities early, and turns the Creative Director's vision into ambitious, commercially sound plan - all within clear stock, sell-through and margin targets. They will play a central role in extending RIXO beyond dresses into a full wardrobe offer.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Trading and stock ownership

• Weekly trade — lead the weekly trade meeting and own the actions that come out of it and be accountable for the results.

• Product trading decisions — own all product trading decisions across channels (buys, re-orders, chases, cancellations, stock moves and markdown), working in partnership with the Head of Growth, who owns customer and traffic performance.

• WSSI — run weekly trading and the WSSI: stock cover, full-price sell-through, re-orders and cancellations.

• Open-to-buy — own open-to-buy by channel and category, including buy depth and intake phasing.

• Margin — own entry margin (IMU), exit margin, markdown budget and aged/residual stock.

• Finance partnership — work with Finance on budgets, reforecasts and in-season phasing.

Range planning and product strategy

• Translate the Creative Director's vision into a clear commercial range architecture: categories, price points, occasions and end use, channel roles, continuity and seasonal product

• Own a rolling 12-month commercial product plan, agreed with the Creative Director.

• Feed customer and trading insight into range planning early enough to shape a collection, not simply plan around a finished one.

• Build out categories beyond dresses into a coherent wardrobe offer, so customers can shop RIXO for more of their lives.

• Build strong product ladders that let customers enter the brand, trade up and buy across categories.

• Balance seasonal newness and storytelling with continuity and replenishment, protecting the distinctiveness that makes RIXO special.

Customer and market insight

• Build a deep, evidence-based understanding of the RIXO customer and where the range is — and isn't — meeting her needs.

• Bring together sales and ecommerce data, customer behaviour, returns and reviews, store and wholesale feedback and external market intelligence.

• Keep a forward-looking view of customer behaviour, competitor activity, trends and pricing.

• Use data to inform decisions without letting historical performance limit creativity.

Test and learn

• Establish a disciplined test-and-learn approach across product, price and channel, with a clear hypothesis, success measure and scaling decision for each test.

• Review results quickly and decide whether to scale, adapt, repeat or stop.

• Work with Production to chase proven demand in-season.

Channel trading

• Wholesale — set pre-season targets by major account; challenge the breadth and depth of account buys; manage reorders, stock swaps and in-season trading with partners, including regular trading reviews.

• Retail — own store allocation, size curves and transfers, based on local sell-through and regular reviews with the retail team.

• Stock flow — manage stock across stores, warehouse and ecommerce to maximise full-price sell-through, and set the approach to clearance and end-of-season stock.

Key working relationships

This role sits at the centre of the business and works closely with every commercial and operational team:

• Finance – budgets, margin and profitability; inventory investment, OTB, forecasting and reforecasts to ensure stock decisions support sustainable growth .

• Ecommerce - digital marketing (product priorities, campaign and promotion planning) and customer reporting (the data that drives trading decisions).

• Wholesale - account buys, reorders, stock swaps and in-season trading with partners.

• Retail - store performance, allocation and transfers; understanding from the stores what is and isn't working.

• Operations - handing over product for inbound, intake phasing, and making sure stock lands on time and is ready to sell.

• Production - critical path, delivery dates, repeats and in-season chase.

• Finance - budgets, outlooks and reforecasts.

Success measures

• Sales vs budget.

• Full-price sell-through.

• Gross margin %.

• Stock turn and stock cover.

• Markdown as a % of sales.

• Range performance against the agreed category plan.

ABOUT YOU:

• Proven experience as a Merchandise Director or senior merch leader in fashion, retail or e-commerce, ideally in a founder-led business, with experience leading and developing a team.

• A track record of growing a brand beyond one dominant category and shaping what the range should be, not just managing its delivery.

• Strong commercial judgement across category strategy, range architecture, pricing, margin and market positioning, with genuine product instinct.

• Experience across DTC, retail and wholesale.

• Confident building test-and-learn frameworks, spotting opportunities and scaling what works.

• An excellent communicator who can build trust with founders, challenge constructively and influence an entrepreneurial exec team.

• Naturally curious and proactive, bringing ideas and identifying opportunities rather than waiting to be asked.

• Highly analytical, organised and comfortable with merchandising and planning systems.

• Resilient, adaptable and comfortable working at pace who loves being entrepreneurial.

WHY RIXO?

• Hybrid working: three days on-site each week.

• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays.

• Generous staff discount across all RIXO collections plus early access to sample sales before anyone else.

• Team socials that actually happen. We celebrate the work and the people behind it.

• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave designed around real life, not policy minimums.

• Health cash plan to cover the everyday stuff: opticians, physio, dental. The things that add up.