Assistant Category/Buying Manager

Bloom & Wild is re-inventing the $60B global flower industry. Over a billion flower exchanges take place every year and industry satisfaction levels are low. Driven by our vision of creating the destination for making life a little more thoughtful and beautiful, we do things differently. From inventing letterbox flowers to founding The Thoughtful Marketing Movement. And we’ve seen impressive traction to date - we are Europe’s largest direct to consumer flower company.

In January 2021 we announced our £75 million Series D funding round, led by General Catalyst (backers of Airbnb and Deliveroo), alongside other top tier investors including Index Ventures (investors in Wise and Glossier). We are home to a family of 3 strong brands, Bloom & Wild, bloomon and Bergamotte, having acquired bloomon in April 2021 and Bergamotte in July 2021. Together, we are active in 8 countries. 

We really care about creating a diverse and inclusive team and we welcome people from all backgrounds, with different perspectives, ideas and experiences to work with us. In our team, everyone has the freedom to give their opinion, grow in their career and be part of a genuinely caring and inclusive team.

Range & Merchandising at Bloom & Wild

The Range & Merchandising team is responsible for the ideation and execution of physical products across all markets and platforms, from initial concept, through product development to launch. What began as a range of just three bouquets of letterbox flowers now spans a gifting-focussed range of both Letterbox and Hand Tied flowers, plants, add-ons, seasonal gifts and more. 

Our ethos as a team is to curate a range of innovative, affordable and high quality bouquets and gifts that represent our unique and distinctive style of design, that our customers will be proud to send and love to receive.

As a fast moving, data driven business, the Range & Merchandising team works cross-functionally with other teams across the business to support our decision making. We gather insight with the help of the Business Intelligence and Customer Research and Insight teams; brief the Brand and Creative teams to develop the concept; work with Finance on the unit economics and then collaborate with Supply and Quality on execution. We have close links with the Digital Product team too to ensure our ranges are easily shoppable on site and look as appealing as possible. 

The role & ways of working:

Working within our agile team of category managers, you'll focus predominantly on our Plants range, as well as supporting on Flowers ranges. You'll be responsible for planning insight driven commercial product ranges that meet our customer and business needs. You’ll optimise your category areas in line with performance and trends, and will also spend time exploring and developing new product ideas with suppliers and with other teams in the business. 

Responsibilities will include:

Working closely with our suppliers and cross-functional teams to ensure our plant collection delivers a delightful, high quality experience for our customers Keeping a calendar of seasonal and new product development on track and well communicated  Collaborating with our Forecasting & Trading teams to map out sales predictions that capitalise on the seasonal benefits of each collection and avoid availability restrictions  Reacting to live opportunities or challenges with proactive suggestions and actions - including adapting to supply, quality, or cost feedback, and making sensible substitutions where necessary  Owning weekly/monthly reporting and conducting thorough retros on category performance and key metrics for customer satisfaction and sales Keeping category information and insights clearly documented as a self-serve resource across the business Supporting the generation of photo assets for each collection, which carefully showcase our plants and set them up for success Briefing care booklets with sufficient detail to ensure that product development and quality considerations are carried through into the customers unboxing experience Undertaking regular competitor benchmarking and trend spotting, identifying opportunities to innovate and keep a distinctive edge 

Your background

2-4 years experience in a (physical) product development, buying, or range/category management role. This will include experience of understanding and leveraging data to deliver a quality customer experience and against KPIs. Attention to detail - You’re methodical and precise and really take care in your work to deliver to a consistently excellent standard  Analytical - You’ll be comfortable working with large sheets of data, extracting meaningful insights and shaping plans  Creative eye - You’ll have an appreciation and eye for the key details that make up great design, and be able to brief and discuss those with designers   Organised - You’ll be on top of the many different workstreams and will be able to prioritise to deliver your work on time   Stakeholder management - You’ll keep all of your stakeholders up to date and well informed, understanding what is important to them, keeping your communication efficient and effective   Customer empathy - You put customers first, seek to understand what works for them and champion them in your decision making to develop products they love. You’re motivated by this above all else.   Proactive & Resourceful - You take responsibility and initiative to get things done, are willing to roll up your sleeves and independently get stuck in to find solutions Driven - You are enthusiastic, passionate and keen to deliver results with impact

Why Bloom & Wild?

To care wildly for our customers, first we care wildly for our teams.  We work hard to craft a culture of thoughtfulness and care, where there is a strong sense of inclusion and belonging, enabling all of our people to thrive and be successful each day.

🌻 Work that works for you 

- Flexible working (core hours from 10-4pm)

- Work Abroad for up to 30 days each year 

- Summer hours: every Friday afternoon off during July and August (trialling in 2023)

- Share in our success with a choice to take equity options from day 1

- Enhanced family leave policy and a workplace nursery scheme

- 1 day per year to volunteer on a project that’s close to your heart

🌴 Time off

- 25 days’ holiday + your birthday and bank holidays each year

- Option to buy an extra 5 days’ holiday each year 

- Flexible bank holidays - trade a bank holiday for another day that fits your beliefs, values and celebration calendar

🌱 Health & Wellbeing

- Health cash plan through Simplyhealth

- Mental health support through Open Up, including access to online therapy sessions

- Allies and champions groups

- Mental Health First Aiders and awareness training for our managers 

- In person and virtual yoga every week

- Cycle to work scheme

- Our office kitchen is stocked with drinks and snacks to keep you going

- Financial wellbeing support through Bippit

🌳 Growth & Development

- A flexible training framework for every stage of your career development through our Bloom & Learn programme

- Access to the Goodhabitz learning platform

- Mentee and mentor opportunities with our external partners, such as The Women's Association and Future Founders

- Internal & external  Speaker Sessions on a variety of different inspirational topics

💐 Moments that matter

- Social & wellbeing monthly calendar

- We love to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and other important milestones!

- Summer and End of Year events, team lunches and post-peak celebrations

- Irresistible discounts on our products, blooms & subscriptions!

Your application experience is important to us and we’re keen to adapt to make every interaction even better. We welcome feedback on our recruitment process and would love to hear from you directly on how we can improve. If you have any suggestions please feel free to let us know.