Store Leader

Since its launch in 1993 with a collection of six essential handbags, Kate Spade New York has always stood for optimistic femininity. Today, the brand is a global life and style house with handbags, ready-to-wear, jewelry, footwear, gifts, home décor and more. Polished ease, thoughtful details and a modern, sophisticated use of color—Kate Spade New York’s founding principles define a unique style synonymous with joy. Under the vision of creative director Nicola Glass, the brand continues to celebrate confident women with a youthful spirit.

Kate Spade New York is part of the Tapestry portfolio – a global house of brands powered by optimism, innovation, and inclusivity.

Job Title: Store Leader (Manager)

Primary Purpose:

The successful individual will leverage their proficiency in retail to…

Client & Service Expert:

• Development of business driving initiatives that build a repeat business or that attracts a new customer.
• Communicate and achieve store productivity targets including sales per hour, adt, upt, and capture rate.
• Ensure all associates and leadership complete the sales training program and develops strong product knowledge across all categories.
• Model and supervise the selling environment, provide consistent coaching on sales training process in order to ensure the highest level of customer service and sales.

Leadership Presence/Steward of Talent:

• Achieve financial success through improvement of measurable statistics that positively impact the store performance.
• Hire, train and motivate a qualified sales team that effectively represents and communicates the kate spade new york brand to our customers.
• Provide specific development for the assistant manager and supervisor by assigning accountabilities and training with consistent follow-up and feedback.
• Perform annual performance evaluations with quarterly review of employee goals.
• Network and create positive relationships in the community that result in business generation, awareness of the kate spade new york brand and builds a bench strength of qualified candidates to fill key open positions.
• Attend, on average, two annual company management meetings.

Building Brand Equity:

• Understand and able to communicate the kate spade new york brand aesthetic, brand philosophy and lifestyle to the sales team and customer.
• Ensure visual merchandising directives are implemented efficiently as per direction and visual standards are maintained at all times.
• Analyze and react to business trends regarding assortment, communicating sell-through, stock levels, opportunities to increase sales.
• Communicate to District Leader customer feedback and quality issues in order to improve customer service and sales.

Operational Excellence:

• Perform and supervise store opening and closing procedures including counting register funds, completing bank deposits, opening and closing registers and securing facility.
• Conduct regular store meetings to ensure accurate and consistent communication with employees.
• Maintain payroll budget and weekly hours to ensure appropriate sales floor coverage by reviewing store schedule and adjusting as necessary to meet the needs of the business.
• Supervise operational responsibilities to ensure the timely and accurate processing of all markdowns, transfers, damages, shipping and receiving in order to maintain the integrity of the inventory.
• Oversee loss prevention policies and procedure to be 100% compliant.

The accomplished individual will possess...

• Professional sales development and exceptional interpersonal skills
• Strong leadership qualities and the ability to communicate effectively with all levels within the organization and our client base
• Ability to analyze selling reports, identify business trends and react quickly to the needs of the business
• Comfortable in making decisions and mediating conflict within a team-environment
• Proficient in windows-based software such as excel, word and outlook 

An outstanding professional will have...

• Minimum 3 years management experience in luxury goods or a comparable retail environment
• College degree preferred
• Prior luxury goods experience preferred

Physical requirements…

• Available to work store schedule, as needed, including evenings and weekends
• Standing for extended periods of time
• Able to safely lift boxes up to 40 pounds
• Comfortable climbing ladders 

Our Competencies for All Employees

• Drive for Results: Can be counted on to exceed goals successfully; is constantly and consistently one of the top performers; very bottom-line oriented; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
• Customer Focus: Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements in products and services; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect.
• Creativity: Comes up with a lot of new and unique ideas; easily makes connections among previously unrelated notions; tends to be seen as original and value-added in brainstorming settings.
• Interpersonal Savvy: Relates well to all kinds of people, up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably.
• Learning on the Fly: Learns quickly when facing new problems; a relentless and versatile learner; open to change; analyzes both successes and failures for clues to improvement; experiments and will try anything to find solutions; enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar tasks; quickly grasps the essence and the underlying structure of anything.
• Dealing with Ambiguity: Can effectively cope with change; can shift gears comfortably; can decide and act without having the total picture; isn’t upset when things are up in the air; doesn’t have to finish things before moving on; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty.

Our Competencies for All People Managers

• Strategic Agility: Sees ahead clearly; can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately; has broad knowledge and perspective; is future oriented; can articulately paint credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihoods; can create competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans.
• Building Effective Teams: Blends people into teams when needed; creates strong morale
  and spirit in his/her team; shares wins and successes; fosters open dialogue; lets people finish and be responsible for their work; defines success in terms of the whole team; creates a feeling of belonging in the team.
• Managerial Courage: Doesn’t hold back anything that needs to be said; provides current, direct, complete, and “actionable” positive and corrective feedback to others; lets people know where they stand; faces up to people problems on any person or situation (not including direct reports) quickly and directly; is not afraid to take negative action when necessary.

Kate Spade is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and we pride ourselves on hiring and developing the best people. All employment decisions (including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, transfer, training, discipline and termination) are based on the applicant’s or employee’s qualifications as they relate to the requirements of the position under consideration. These decisions are made without regard to age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic characteristics, race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity, national origin, alienage, citizenship, disability, marital status, military status, pregnancy, or any other legally-recognized protected basis prohibited by applicable law. Visit Kate Spade at www.katespade.com.