Holly Ruanne Duckworth

Dec 15- Ongoing               Freelance Merchandising Consultant

Most recently working with the e-commerce team at a London based fashion studio, streamlining data processes and building                                         automated reporting tools to improve efficiency. 

Working with the Managing Director advising on what Merchandising tools could be introduced to the company, such as range                                         plans and WISSI’s.

Implementing cross function business calendars as a starting point for introducing a traditional Buying/Merchandiser framework to help support the company as it grows.                                                

Carrying out in house training. 

Troubleshooting and fixing technical excel problems.

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March 2020- Ongoing               Tech Returners

Full Stack Software Engineer

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Currently 12 weeks into a 15 week course with "techreturners.com" learning the technical skills needed to access a career in software development.  New Skills include:

Building a front end, user friendly website using HTML, CSS and React.js whilst utilising tools such as Bootstrap to make the website responsive

Using Javascript to problem solve and enhance the functionality of the website.

Configuring a Lambda function to access Amazon RDS, via 'Postman' to create  a GET, POST, PUT and DELETE  API to access information from a SQL database that has been created in terminal.

Pair programming and utilising problem solving techniques, such as code annotating to solve complex problems in Javascript.

Version control with Git & Github.

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Dec 16- April 2020               Sosandar.com

Water Lane, Wilmslow

Merchandiser

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I joined Sosandar 3 months after it launched and was actively involved in the Buying and Merchandising as well as eCommerce sides of the business. The primary role was to learn how to use the warehousing and reporting software programmes, PRIAM, TABLEU and MAGENTO.

I created a batch of in house reporting tools which are used on a daily basis to plan the forthcoming season, trade the categories as well as enabling the senior management team to report on company performance to the board and new investors.

I wrote extensive training manuals, become an expert in the company on the key software packages used and rolled out training to a number of new staff members.

As well as trading and planning the fledgling Non-clothing area of the business I project managed the creation of a ‘data warehouse’ allowing data integration from a number of data sources, using API’s allowing the streamlining of the reporting function of the business.

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Feb 15- Dec 15                 Gap Europe

Berkeley Square House, Berkeley Square, London W1J 6BS

Market Planner (Toddler Girls) July 2015-December 2015

Junior Planner (Toddler Girls) Feb 2015 – July 2015

 

The Toddler Girl department was trading up +5% on the year, with sales growing to £4.6 million  per quarter throughout the Christmas season.  I managed 17 clothing categories consisting of around 90 options.

Product was designed and procured in the US and my role was to select and range styles to maximise the potential across the 160+ stores in the European Market.  This resulted in a quarterly buying cycle whereby I planned the potential sales at department, category and line level before placing quantities for the upcoming seasons.

Key tasks included managing the WISSI, OTB monitors and markdown spend in order to maintain the planned terminal figures.  Gap is a very promotion and markdown heavy brand, so managing the pricing architecture was a daily task in order to protect the selling margin of the business.

Whilst at Gap I played an integral role in re-designing both the weekly reporting tools and the quarterly buying reports.  The aim was to streamline the data compilation process and automate reports to increase efficiency.  The reports were rolled out across all core Merchandising teams.

 

 

Oct 13-Feb 15                   Jack Wills

Victoria Road, North Acton, NW10 6DJ 

Junior Merchandiser  (Men’s Non Clothing) June 2014 –Feb 2015

Senior Assistant Merchandiser (Men’s Non Clothing)  Oct 2013-June 2014

 

The non-clothing department consisted of 150+ full price options, was +28% on the year with sales peaking at £4 million during the Christmas season. 

In order to influence the Design Department to create the most commercial product I played an integral role in designing a tool that combines store space information with sales plans to produce detailed option frameworks. 

I managed all trading decisions within the department by tracking the OTB, maintaining the WISSI and highlighting when continuity lines needed to be brought into the business. 

I planned markdown accordingly to ensure that terminal stock levels were at a level that satisfies the Outlet portion of the business, whilst marinating a sensible markdown spend.

I worked closely with the production teams to ensure that margin targets were met and intake flowed into the business in a timely manner. 

I line managed two MAA’s, supervised a Senior AM, and took an active role in the recruiting and hiring process of junior members of the team.

 

 

April 13-Oct 13          ASOS

Greater London House, 180 Hampstead Road, London, NW1 7AW

Assistant Merchandiser : Level 2 (Branded Lingerie and Swim Department)

The average sales of the Lingerie and Swim Department were 950k per week.  Sales were driven from 1500 full price options per department. 

 

I worked in the branded side of the business managing 30 brands. The brands ranged from the high end with ASP’s of £150+ to big name high street brands such as New Look.  I predominantly oversaw the running of the Lingerie department liaising with various brands, forecasting the sales to ensure that there were the correct stock levels to maximise sales potential. 

 

At the point that I joined the company, ASOS had only been working with department level WISSI’s.  I planned the departments at a category level looking at historical phasing and trends.   I set up category WISSI’s in order to get an accurate understanding of where the OTB is for each department in order to plan the forthcoming AW13 and SS14 seasons. 

 

 

June 09-April 13     Topshop

Arcadia, Colegrave House, 70 Berners Street, London W1T 3NL

 

Jan 12 –April 13      Assistant Merchandiser (Skirts and Shorts Department)

The department was trading +66% on the year, with weekly sales of £750k+, consisting of 250 options across the financial half.

 

Jan 12 –April 13      Assistant Merchandiser (Make up Department)

The makeup department was a rapidly growing and very high-profile section of the Topshop brand.   The Makeup department was trading 50% up on the year with weekly sales of £200k. 

 

Dec 10-July 11        Senior Merchandising Admin Assistant (Jersey Department)

Whilst working in the largest of Topshop’s head office departments my role was to manage the £3 million pounds worth of stock that flowed into the business each week.  I was the primary contact for suppliers in relation to delivery issues and I worked closely with the logistics department in order to meet our intake targets. 

 

June 09-Dec 10        Merchandising Admin Assistant (Shoes, Casualwear, Knitwear Departments)

 

 

Jan 09-May 09        Smithson Law Firm LLP

Ward’s Building, 31-39 High Bridge, Newcastle upon-Tyne, NE1 1EW

 

Archiving and Office Manager

This was a Solicitors firm specialising in commercial and private law. Deploying my computing and organisational skills, whilst working closely with the senior partner, practice solicitors, administrative staff and an external management consultant, I designed, implemented and wrote an instruction manual for a document archiving system.