Commercial Activity Leader - IKEA

Job description / Role

Commercial Activity Leader - IKEA - Regional Office, Dubai

Purpose:
- To develop sales in an efficient and effective way in all media in order to attract more customers to come more often and buy more.
- Do this by optimising sales priorities, commercial activities and ensuring the right forecasts for IKEA total offer.

Main responsibilities include:
- Developing and executing sales steering, selling the IKEA way, range grouping, pricing, range management and launches. This ensures an enjoyable, convenient and successful shopping and buying experience in IKEA, which leads to increased sales and sustained long-term profitability by generating more traffic to our stores, using all internal and external media.
- Work in collaboration with the Commercial Activity Team to lead the commercial calendar process in Country. Do this by using knowledge of IKEA range, the national market, competition, our customers, and the experience and expertise of colleagues.
- Support Regional Commercial Navigator in effective retail decision making by Providing accurate, relevant and user-friendly business information with the right tools and by analysing business information and identifying business opportunities by being an active partner in business development initiatives.

About the Job:

Commercial:
- Overall objective is to grow sales and sustain long term profitability.
- Knowing IKEA range, global priorities, volume commitments, national market and competition, using this information to contribute to the country commercial calendar.
- Effectively working with, and influencing, the Country commercial team, marketing and other support functions to support the commercial calendar and store activities.
- Proactively working with the commercial calendar and coordinating all country commercial offers and activities including free range. Forecast and plan the activities well in advance to ensure the correct stock availability and communicate these plans to the stores.
- Supporting a fast implementation of planned activity changes, securing a red thread throughout the stores and external Medias, to ensure the most commercial expression at all times for IKEA customers.
- Understanding the potential of country commercial opportunities and acting on these, by selecting and communicating our products effectively to maximise sales and generate more visits.
- Selecting and using free range products to maximise commercial activities; securing the order process, from buying to delivery, and working with logistics to make sure the products are available. Support IKEA store commercial team to do the same
- Within their stores.
- Communicating IKEA range offer in all internal and external media; showing a clear price and quality ladder, always ensuring a strong low-price message.
- supporting the stores in executing the commercial calendar, monitoring and acting on their sales results, major stock availability issues and working with logistics to following up on deviations, in order to share good solutions and improve poor performance.
- Working with store commercial activity leaders by giving constructive feedback and to develop their commercial skills, encouraging them to share their ideas and successes.
- Networking with Sales matrix partners and colleagues in other countries, sharing good examples and successes, encouraging others to do the same.
- Ensuring that all actions are aligned with IKEA objective of becoming the leader in life at home and growing with sustained profitability

Lead the commercial calendar process by:
- Creating an action plan, working with the Sales Leaders, commercial team and marketing. This is based on the country business plan, commercial and range priorities, agreed goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the country.
- Ensuring it is understood by all functions as it will form the basis for how we plan to drive sales throughout the year.
- Ensuring a qualitative and efficient implementation in the country, securing that all functions take responsibility for delivering their part.
- Following up on the commercial calendar process and communicating progress and results to colleagues and stores.

Financial:
- Define, agree and deliver Country sales, gross margin, gross profit, store visitors and other Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and goals for commercial activities.
- Support Sales & Range Functions in Sales Planning, Tactical Planning and Range Dimensioning.
- Commercially drive sales through short-term and long-term action plans.
- Understand the impact of my actions on the financial results of country and know which results have influence over.
- Regularly analyse and follow up on commercial activities, to steer store commercial activity leaders towards achieving sales targets, gross margin goals and return of investment and take actions accordingly.
- Responsible for the country price deviations in the commercial activities and support the co-ordination of country price deviation actions, optimising commercial opportunities of outgoing products and overstock in order to minimise price.
- Ensure all commercial activity initiatives grow our sales and support the sustaining of long-term profitability.
- Control costs through working in a lean, simple and cost-conscious way using good examples and encouraging my colleagues to discover more effective ways of working.

Customers:
- Secure the vitality of IKEA stores in all media by, working closely with the Commercial Activity Team, commercially using our range and the commercial calendar, so that our customers feel inspired to visit our stores more frequently.
- Use knowledge of IKEA customers, market, and the competition, and work with my Sales matrix, to secure a range mix that is appropriate for our national market, in all media. This ensures that we maximise the competitive advantage of our products and supports the expansion of our customer base.
- Meet with IKEA customers to learn from their experiences, ideas and views in order to improve the vitality of our stores throughout the year.
- Analyse individual store performance, customer feedback and our database information using this information to identify commercial activities that have been successful. Use this knowledge to plan future activities. Share this with my colleagues in Sales matrix.

Requirements

- University Degree
- 5 to 7 years’ experience in Retail Sales with Interest in people’s everyday life at home preferably in Home Furnishing.
- Experience of setting and implementing action plans, setting Sales budgets and following up goals.
- Preferably Experience of a management role in the IKEA store.

Job-Specific Skills Essential:
- Self-reliant and motivated with proven ability to work as part of a team as well as independently.
- Strong analytical and numerical skills
- Experience of using the commercial priorities to prioritise their own work.
- Ability to communicate confidently and clearly in English
- Computer proficient

Behavioural Competencies:
- Customer Focused
- Individual Accountability
- Continuous Improvement
- Personal Leadership
- Teamwork

About the Company

Established in the 1930's, the Al-Futtaim Group initially operated as a trading enterprise. Rapid development throughout the 1940's and 50's saw it establish itself regionally as an integrated commercial, industrial and services organisation, positioning itself one of the leading business houses in the lower Gulf region. Today, it operates collectively over 40 companies bearing the Al-Futtaim name, dominates many market segments in the UAE, and has expanded its sphere of operation to include Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Egypt.

The Group comprises a diverse range of strategically positioned operating subsidiaries and associate companies, structured to give the Al-Futtaim Group the flexibility and versatility to keep ahead of local competition while keeping pace with the ever-evolving global business scenario. The Groups continued investment in world-class systems technology is clear evidence of its commitment to maintain leading edge performance and service delivery.

The success of the Al-Futtaim Group can be attributed to a business approach that combines the ability to change with the traditional values of integrity, service and social responsibility that define its core business philosophy. This, linked with the Groups belief in decentralisation, gives the heads of the operating companies a high degree of functional autonomy and authority, providing the Group with essential flexibility, and individual employees a clearly defined work culture and sense of responsibility.