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James Woods

Commercial Analyst
  • Suggested rate
    €300 / day
  • Experience3-7 years
  • Response rate100%
  • Response time1 hour
The project will begin once you accept James's quote.
Location and workplace preferences
Location
Harby, England, United Kingdom
Remote only
Primarily works remotely
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Skill set (9)
James in a few words
Ex-Retail Category Manager, Excel and Google Sheets Expert

My Skills
• Data Analysis & Insights
• Dashboard & Chart Creation
• Automation
• Market & Competitor Research
• Commercial Strategy, Planning and Forecasting
• General Problem Solving

A collaborative, hardworking, goal-driven individual with over seven years of experience working in the Retail sector, most recently as a Category Manager at Rutland Cycling. My strengths include planning/forecasting, digesting large data sets into targeted insights and actionable strategies, and relationship building. Having grown my category by almost 100% over two years, I have a proven track record of improving category performance across all core KPIs. I bring positivity to any role, believe in giving credit where it’s due and enjoy working as part of a team or independently.
Experience
  • Rutland Cycling Ltd
    Parts Category Manager
    RETAIL (LARGE RETAILERS)
    August 2018 - July 2021 (2 years and 11 months)
    Oakham, England, United Kingdom
    • Promoted to Manager within 12 months of joining
    • Forecast and delivered revenue, profit, margin and stock targets
    • Managed a category comprising of 10,000 active SKUs, ranging from niche to fast-moving, and entry-level to high-end products
    • Grew the category from <£1 m to £1 .86m revenue in two years
    • Increased web revenue by 52.6% to £868k, whilst beating target margin by 2.5% (absolute)
    • Used data analysis and insights to develop actionable commercial strategies to improve KPIs
    • Developed streamline processes through the use of Power BI and excel to manage a large SKU count and wide range of tasks efficiently
    • Detailed competitor and market analysis
    • Created and managed range plans for the Parts category across a 14-store network and for the web
    • Min / max management across all stores and web
    • Pricing and promotion strategies and analysis
    • Introduced new systems to report on and limit the amount of bad stock (aged and slow-moving)
    • Created effective clearance strategies for bad stock
    • Introduced a new stock prioritisation method to better manage the large SKU count
    • Development of de-risking / exit strategies
    • Researched, negotiated, developed and actioned new product and promotion opportunities
    • E-commerce user-experience for the category
    • Worked closely with brands to improve KPIs and synchronise marketing strategies
    • Presented and contributed at weekly trading meetings with Senior Management
    • Provided add-on sale lists and briefs for the sales team
    • Maintained strong internal and supplier relationships
    • Co-ordinating SKU and web listings
  • Total Fitness Nottingham Limited
    Retail Operations Manager
    October 2013 - October 2017 (4 years)
    Nottingham, UK

    • Introduced in depth statistical analysis on sales, forecasting and using this insight to implement strategies to increase profit margins through the buying process.
    • Profit and loss management
    • Negotiating and building relationships with suppliers
    • Understanding multiple customer buying behaviours / motivators across, Swim, Bike, Run and Triathlon markets
    • Creation of extensive business plan, including research for future company expansions and accounts forecasting for several scenarios for each project
    • Responsible for uploading products onto a new ecommerce platform, adding descriptions, meta descriptions, images etc for 3000 products (excluding size and colour variations)
    • Stock control and management and working within the confines of cash flow budgets
    • Writing blog posts and reviews
    • Introducing, analysing and managing new product lines
    • Managing and mentoring a team of 4
    • Staff rota management
    • Managing EPOS systems: Stock control and management and working within the confines of cash flow budgets.
    • Managing and co-ordinating E-commerce faction of the business including online merchandising, SEO & PPC Marketing, front end and back end processes
    • Merchandising (online and instore)
    • Customer service
    • Administrative tasks including preparing documents for accounts, day to day takings etc
  • Mattioli Woods plc
    Investment Analyst
    August 2010 - August 2011 (1 year)
    Leicester, UK

    • Economic analysis
    • Tracking trends, including currency, interest rates and inflation
    • Independent Financial Advisor (IFA) support
    • Compiling weekly economic outlook and investment opportunities reports to be sent to clients and used by IFAs
    • As part of the research team, it was my job to examine and keep up to date with investment assets to be recommended to clients by IFAs and used within discretionary fund management portfolios with varying risk exposure
    • Developing relationships with asset management companies
    • Creating monthly overview reports to be used by IFAs
Recommendations
Education
  • BA Business, Business Administration and Management, General
    Nottingham Trent University
    2012
    BA Business, Business Administration and Management, General