Laura Skemp

• Expert AB managing a large scope: 24 brands/14 vendors • Fully owned merchant responsibilities for Jockey Generation and women’s thermals. Strongly influenced decisions and strategy for total national brand intimates assortment. • Successfully on boarded and launched five premium brands with Target • Developed assortment strategies to deliver on fewer deeper bolder, with style and brand reductions, making smarter investments based on guest insights and trends. • Utilize comp shopping, trend services, following emerging DTC brands, DOMO and NPD data. Optimized product development cycle with premium, exclusive vendors. • Built a comprehensive women’s underwear assortment, presentation and pricing offshelf strategy for Back to School 2020-2022. Led total BTS initiatives across M/W/K basics. • Developed flexibility and contingencies while planning women’s thermal assortment, which is a highly seasonal, segmented, and complex business. • Partnered with buyer and broader team to develop and deliver seasonal strategy presentations. • Worked with site merchandising partners to improve guest navigation, site experience, and purchasability. Created a focused strategy for key premium brand programs to expand on digital assortment. • Optimized our presentation through POG strategy changes in order to deliver a better guest shopping experience and highlighting a curated, edited, assortment within a smaller footprint. • On boarded two buyers to the business in the past three years, learning to influence without authority within the team and with vendor partners. Seamlessly drove strategy and maintained credibility with vendors through each transition. • Member of divisional DEI Committee • Completed GAPS negotiations training in June 2019.

• Drove top notch inventory execution and accountability in Xhilaration bralettes through strategic chase/airing strategies for the trending bralette business; resulting in a large incremental beat to plan • Ensured key impressions were in stock for peak spring and BTS periods • Improved sales and profitability by collaborating with sourcing to optimize import chase/cancel strategies. Pushed vendors to shorten lead times by creating new contingency levers and improving our get-in strategy, shortening commit to store lead time by 2-4 weeks. Resulted in over large upside inventory reaction. • Took initiative to learn and execute multiple merchant priorities while buyer was out on maternity leave, contributing to best in class spring 2017 comp. • Helped grow category market share and comps by double digits • Led the Intimates team as out-of-stock captain, mentoring peers to proactively troubleshoot potential instock risk, resulting in consecutive green OOSs for 20+ weeks while simultaneously running positive sales growth across nearly all categories. Partnered with the Owned Brand Intimates team to develop a process to more accurately communicate instock risk and improve communication with leadership. • Demonstrated resiliency, accountability, and leadership through transformation as my scope expanded +250%, running a business comprised of 3,000+ items. Advocated for team collaboration and education by training Planners and Associate Buyers in key inventory tasks, including POG proofing, receipt trending, and markdown analysis. • Recognized by leadership for being a role model during merchandise transformation

• Organize, track, and ship all samples, as well as maintain detailed sample logs • Assist product managers throughout development process, including writing of product specs • Review confirmation samples with product managers against product specs to ensure all details are correct • Assist in writing and proofing of productions orders, proformas, and EDI’s • Assist VP of sales and product managers with all preparations needed for sales presentations and meetings • Daily email communications with factories and key accounts • Manage weekly recaps and sales reports of key accounts for tracking of sales and historical reference • Participate in development discussions and trend research as needed • Build and maintain a photo library of all development, key account, and production samples, and materials used • Review and approve all production photos of product/labels/cartons/boxes/packing etc. for all China production as supplied by the factories (both direct and Minneapolis shipments) • Order and track price tickets, labels, and hangtags as required for multiple large accounts • Enter sales orders for select key accounts into the company database (Xperia) • Manage the coordination of all closeout (discontinued) styles, offerings, and orders with the National Account Manager.

• Responsible for purchasing all gift shop merchandise • Increased gift shop profits by 15 percent in 2014 by anticipating consumer trends and improving merchandise selection • Noticeably raised customer satisfaction with store experience noted by increased frequency of positive customer comments and a higher rate of new return customers • Managed budget to maximize profit while maintaining high quality merchandise standards • Designed, merchandised and maintained all gift displays • Consulted with the owner on operations and staff decisions for the gift shop • Assigned daily tasks to staff

• Supported Director of Style and stylists through product scouting and market research • Assisted on photo shoots through garment preparation, returns, and styling advice • Participated in idea generation and implementation of blog posts that increased overall social media following by 400+ people • Monitored social media outlets for style-related events, trends, and stories • Created and maintained inspiration boards for Pinterest and blog stories

• Assistant to co-owners and designer • Initial contact for both vendors and clients • Managed sample inventory from preparation through shipping, tracking and returns • Assisted on photo shoots • Coordinated purchasing of all office supplies for corporate headquarters and showroom • Celebrity gift fulfillment

• Purchased and managed the cut flower inventory • Arranged and maintained all visual merchandising and displays • Guided customers throughout their shopping experience • Designed unique flower arrangements for individual customers, weddings, and special events • Developed a significant customer following for custom floral arrangements • Created monthly e-mail newsletters and maintained the company Facebook page

• Assisted in the creation, production, and installation of store displays and artwork • Maintained back stock room by processing, organizing and checking inventory • Maintained current art installations and clothing displays

• Sales associate and visual merchandiser at the company’s boutique, Mags and Pye • Assisted the designers with trend research and marketing • Organized and inventoried entire stock room weekly, leading to better product assortment and higher sales in boutique • Assisted on photo shoots with styling and setup

Minor in Management

Studied abroad and took two courses in visual merchandising and buying and product development