How To Become A Vice President, Merchandising: What It Is and Career Path

What is a vice president, merchandising and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

The primary role of a vice president of merchandising is to promote the services and products of their company at events. He/She creates and leads merchandising, pricing, and promotional strategies to drive sales, increase revenue, and improve market share. This includes developing and implementing plans for the introduction and promotion of new products based on customer research. He/She analyzes market trends and evaluates the behavior of competitors to devise strategies to promote products. Also, he/she monitors and analyzes the performance of various channels to determine if there's a need for changes in strategy and identify opportunities.

Employers require a bachelor's degree in merchandising or a related field with at least ten years of relevant work experience. Problem-solving, organization, interpersonal, leadership, analytical, communication, management, and presentation skills are required for this role. Vice presidents, merchandising earn about $172,521 in a year, equivalent to $82.94 per hour. Their salary varies from $114,000 to $259,000.

ScoreVice President, MerchandisingUS Average

Salary

10.0

Avg. Salary $194,178

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

9.6

Growth Rate 6%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.47%

Asian 6.42%

Black or African American 6.24%

Hispanic or Latino 15.40%

Unknown 4.35%

White 67.12%

Gender

female 35.04%

male 64.96%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress Level

9.6

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.2

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

3.6

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a vice president, merchandising

Explore vice president, merchandising education requirements

Most common vice president, merchandising degrees

Bachelor's

82.0 %

Master's

8.3 %

Associate

6.9 %

Start to develop specific vice president, merchandising skills

Skills	Percentages
Apparel	8.35%
Sales Growth	6.62%
Gross Margin	5.82%
Product Development	5.82%
Direct Reports	5.21%

Complete relevant vice president, merchandising training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New vice presidents, merchandising learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a vice president, merchandising based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real vice president, merchandising resumes.

Research vice president, merchandising duties and responsibilities

Drive replenishment through vigilant maintenance of key in-store metrics to drive POS performance and achieve Tandy corporate financial plans.
Lead commercial operations including structuring and closing strategic partnerships and building a unique business intelligence platform for the healthcare industry.
Negotiate major telecommunications and B2B e-commerce programs netting $6.3 million run rate savings.
Direct marketing, merchandising and advertising functions for e-commerce business.

Get vice president, merchandising experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a vice president, merchandising. The most common roles before becoming a vice president, merchandising include buyer, merchandising director team lead and vice president.

Prepare your vice president, merchandising resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your vice president, merchandising resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a vice president, merchandising resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Vice President, Merchandising Resume templates

Build a professional Vice President, Merchandising resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Vice President, Merchandising resume.

Apply for vice president, merchandising jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a vice president, merchandising job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

Average vice president, merchandising salary

The average Vice President, Merchandising salary in the United States is $194,178 per year or $93 per hour. Vice president, merchandising salaries range between $131,000 and $286,000 per year.

Average Vice President, Merchandising Salary

$194,178 Yearly

$93.35 hourly

How do vice presidents, merchandising rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Vice President, Merchandising reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Jun 2022

Cons

I am responsible for everything be it any side of the business