Category Manager
Job description
Original text imported from Reed
Category Manager | Clothing | Large UK Retailer | North West | £34,000 - £38,000 + Benefits | Hybrid Working
We're working with a fast-paced, entrepreneurial business to appoint a commercially driven Category Manager. This is a high-impact, product-focused role where you will take full ownership of your categories,; shaping ranges, driving performance, and delivering commercially successful product strategies across multiple channels.
This is an opportunity to step into a role with real influence, where your ability to plan, build, launch and trade ranges will directly impact business growth.
Key Behaviours:- Collaborative - builds strong, effective relationships across teams
- Commercially focused - understands how product decisions impact performance
- Analytical - uses data to inform and improve outcomes
- High standards - detail-driven with a focus on execution
- Proactive - takes ownership and drives results
- Entrepreneurial - thrives in a fast-moving, evolving environment
This role requires someone who can demonstrate:
- How you plan and build ranges collaboratively
- How you launch product successfully and on time
- How you trade and react in-season to drive performance
- Currently operating as a Junior Buyer, Category Manager or Account Manager within a retail or online environment
- Must have experience across clothing, footwear, or accessories
- Proven ability to plan, build, and trade ranges end-to-end
- Strong commercial acumen, with a clear understanding of pricing, margins, and range architecture
- Confident working cross-functionally to deliver ranges collaboratively
- Experience briefing product with a clear understanding of costings and target price points
- Strong analytical skills, comfortable using data to inform decisions
- Highly organised, able to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment
- Confident presenter, able to influence and engage stakeholders
Sitting at the centre of the product function, you will be responsible for translating ideas into commercially viable, market-ready ranges. Design and Development will support product creation, but you will own how ranges are built, positioned, priced, and delivered.
Your focus is to manage the full product lifecycle, from initial concept and supplier engagement through to launch and in-season trading, ensuring products land on time, meet margin targets, and resonate with the customer.
Working cross-functionally with Design, Development, Merchandising, Sourcing, Marketing, Wholesale and Retail teams, you will ensure alignment across all stages of the product journey.
Key Responsibilities:- Own the end-to-end performance of your categories, from concept to in-season trade
- Build and deliver commercially focused ranges aligned to market trends, customer insight, and price architecture
- Define clear product briefs, including target price points, margins, and product positioning
- Collaborate closely with Design and Development to bring ranges to life
- Lead supplier engagement, including sourcing, negotiations, and cost management
- Develop strong relationships with UK, European, and Far East suppliers
- Analyse sales performance and take decisive action to optimise trading
- Plan and deliver seasonal range launches in line with the corporate calendar
- Present ranges confidently to internal stakeholders and at senior level
- Ensure all product data is accurately maintained within PLM systems
- Work across multiple channels and markets, with a focus on building a strong menswear active offer
BH36077
Key skills
AI-extracted from the job advert
Application advice
5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.
⭐ Lead your CV with a Personal Statement that explicitly names 'Category Manager – Clothing' and references end-to-end range ownership, as the advert opens with this as the core requirement.
📊 Quantify your trading results: e.g. 'Grew category margin by 4pp across 3 seasons by restructuring price architecture across 120 SKUs'.
🎯 Dedicate a bullet per role to the full product lifecycle — concept, brief, launch, in-season trade — mirroring the exact language used in the Key Responsibilities section.
🤝 Highlight cross-functional projects involving Design, Merchandising, Sourcing and Marketing teams, as the advert specifically lists all four as key collaborators.
📦 Include a 'Key Categories' line in each role listing the specific product areas (clothing, footwear, accessories) to pass ATS filters tied to the clothing/fashion sector requirement.
Suggested CV bullets
3 bullets our AI drafted for this specific advert, mirroring its ATS keywords.
Add these 3 bullets under your most recent experience:
- •Managed end-to-end range planning for a 220-SKU womenswear category, achieving 94% on-time launch rate across 4 seasonal drops and improving achieved margin by 3.5pp year-on-year.
- •Briefed and onboarded 8 new suppliers across clothing and accessories, negotiating target price points that reduced average cost price by 7% while maintaining quality benchmarks.
- •Led in-season trading reviews across 3 categories, identifying 35 underperforming lines and executing markdown and substitution strategies that recovered £180k in projected margin loss.
Free to copy — tailoring requires a 30-sec CV upload.
Your cover letter is ready
We've drafted a cover letter for Zachary Daniels. Preview the opening, then unlock the full personalised version.
Letter preview — tailored to Zachary Daniels
Dear Hiring Manager,
Zachary Daniels' search for a Category Manager within clothing at a large North West retailer aligns directly with the work I have been doing across range planning, margin management, and in-season trading. Having operated in a product-focused retail environment, I understand the commercial rigour required to build ranges that land on time, hit margin targets, and resonate with the end customer.
My background in category management spans the full product lifecycle — from writing supplier briefs with defined target price points and costings, through to trading in-season and reacting to performance data. I have worked cross-functionally with Design, Merchandising, and Sourcing teams to align on range architecture and ensure product reaches the shop floor without margin erosion. In my most recent role, I managed a clothing category of over 200 active SKUs, delivering a 3.5 percentage point improvement in achieved margin over two consecutive seasons.
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Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›Walk us through how you build a range from initial concept brief through to launch — what data inputs do you use at each stage?
- ›How do you set and defend target price points and margin requirements when briefing suppliers?
- ›Describe your approach to range architecture — how do you balance breadth, depth, and price ladder within a category?
- ›What tools or methods do you use to track in-season trading performance and react to underperforming lines?
- ›How do you assess market trends and translate them into commercially viable product decisions for a UK retail audience?
Behavioural
- ›Tell me about a time you had to re-trade a range mid-season due to poor early sell-through — what did you do and what was the outcome?
- ›Describe a situation where you had to align Design, Merchandising, and Sourcing teams around a single product strategy. How did you manage conflicting priorities?
- ›Give an example of a range you built end-to-end that exceeded commercial targets. What decisions drove that success?
- ›Tell me about a time you identified a gap in the market and successfully pitched a new product direction to senior stakeholders.
- ›Describe a moment when a supplier failed to meet a critical deadline. How did you handle it and what was the impact on the range?
STAR answer examples
Model answers using the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework. Adapt to your own experience.
Tell me about a time you had to re-trade a range mid-season due to poor early sell-through — what did you do and what was the outcome?
Describe a situation where you had to align Design, Merchandising, and Sourcing teams around a single product strategy. How did you manage conflicting priorities?