Director, Retail Visual Merchandising

About the company

The company LLC is the #1 Hoodie Brand in the U.S. and the #1 Apparel Brand on TikTok globally—built on a mission to support mental health and create everything comfortable for an easy, stress-free, cozy lifestyle. Our elevated basics are worn by millions and loved for their perfect mix of comfort, style, and cultural relevance.

About the Role

As we expand our retail footprint, we're seeking a strategic, creative, and commercially driven Director of Retail Visual Merchandising to build and lead the visual merchandising function across our growing fleet of stores. This role will bridge product strategy, brand storytelling, and retail execution, developing scalable merchandising strategies that elevate the customer experience while driving sales productivity and four-wall profitability.

Reporting to the VP of Retail, this leader will work in close partnership with the Director of Retail, Retail Demand Planner, and cross-functional partners to influence product decisions, optimize merchandising performance, and establish the tools, processes, and standards needed to support the company's continued retail expansion.

What You'll Do

Own the vision, strategy, and execution of the company's retail visual merchandising function, with accountability for driving commercial performance through product presentation, assortment storytelling, and space productivity. Lead the development of scalable merchandising standards, tools, and processes while partnering with Retail Planning, Product, Marketing, and Retail Operations to ensure merchandising strategies align with customer demand, inventory investments, and broader company objectives.

Serve as a strategic partner to retail leadership, translating business insights into actionable merchandising decisions that improve sales, conversion, product productivity, and profitability across the fleet.

Key Responsibilities

Visual Merchandising Strategy & Brand Experience

• Develop and own the overarching visual merchandising strategy across all retail locations, ensuring a consistent, elevated brand experience that supports commercial objectives.

• Build the foundational visual merchandising framework for the company's growing retail fleet, including presentation standards, product placement principles, floor set strategies, space allocation guidelines, and seasonal merchandising playbooks.

• Establish scalable tools, systems, and processes that enable consistent visual execution while allowing for flexibility based on store format, customer behavior, regional demand, and inventory availability.

• Lead the development and distribution of visual merchandising directives, floor sets, seasonal merchandising guides, and product storytelling strategies.

• Establish merchandising strategies that balance brand storytelling with commercial performance, optimizing product visibility, customer engagement, and store productivity.

• Ensure the visual merchandising strategy evolves alongside company growth, product innovation, seasonal campaigns, and changing customer expectations.

Product Strategy, Planning & Merchandising Performance

• Partner closely with the Retail Demand Planner and Product teams to influence retail product buys, assortment architecture, and inventory investments using data-driven insights, customer behavior, and company objectives.

• Provide a retail-specific perspective on product assortment, category opportunities, product depth, and emerging customer preferences to inform future product development and buying decisions.

• Own the development of merchandising strategies that maximize product productivity, optimize selling space, and support overall store profitability.

• Own the analyzing of product performance, sell-through, inventory productivity, category contribution, and customer shopping patterns to identify opportunities for improvement.

• Own and establish an ongoing cadence of data-driven reporting and merchandising performance reviews, translating insights into actionable recommendations for retail leadership and cross-functional partners.

• Own discussions to move quickly to adjust merchandising strategies, product placement, and presentation priorities based on sales trends, inventory positions, and store-level performance.

• Partner with Retail Planning and Operations to develop strategies for underperforming products, excess inventory, new product introductions, and key selling periods.

• Influence assortment and merchandising decisions through a balance of commercial insights, customer experience considerations, and brand objectives.

Field Leadership & Store Development

• Lead the development of visual merchandising capabilities across the retail organization, establishing clear expectations, accountability, and execution standards.

• Coach and develop store-level Visual Merchandising Leads and field leadership through structured training, ongoing feedback, and professional development.

• Partner closely with the Director of Retail, District Managers, and Store Managers to ensure merchandising strategies are understood, consistently executed, and connected to business results.

• Establish a consistent field communication and feedback structure, ensuring store teams have the tools, resources, and guidance needed to execute effectively.

• Conduct regular market visits to evaluate merchandising execution, identify commercial opportunities, and gain firsthand insights into customer shopping behaviors.

• Build a scalable approach to visual merchandising training, audits, and performance accountability that supports the organization's continued growth.

New Store Openings & Visual Execution

• Own the visual merchandising strategy and execution for new store openings, remodels, and major store transitions.

• Partner with the Retail Demand Planner, Product, and Retail Operations teams to support new store assortment planning, initial inventory investments, product allocation, and opening merchandising strategies.

• Develop store-specific merchandising plans that account for store format, selling space, product assortment, customer demographics, and projected sales performance.

• Collaborate with Store Development and Retail Operations during the design and planning process to ensure store layouts, fixtures, and merchandising infrastructure support both brand experience and commercial productivity.

• Establish standardized new store opening visual merchandising processes, timelines, readiness checklists, and execution expectations.

• Evaluate post-opening merchandising performance and incorporate learnings into future store planning, assortment strategies, and merchandising standards.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Serve as a strategic partner to the VP of Retail, Director of Retail, Retail Demand Planner, Product, Brand, Creative, Retail Marketing, and Retail Operations teams.

• Partner with Retail Marketing, Brand, and Creative to translate company-wide campaigns, product launches, and retail activations into compelling in-store product experiences.

• Develop product merchandising strategies that support key marketing moments, seasonal campaigns, promotional initiatives, and localized retail activations.

• Collaborate with Product and Retail Planning to ensure marketing and merchandising strategies are supported by appropriate assortment, inventory availability, and product placement.

• Provide ongoing insights to cross-functional partners regarding customer preferences, product performance, assortment opportunities, and emerging retail trends.

• Act as the voice of the retail customer in cross-functional planning discussions, helping inform broader product and brand strategies through store-level insights.

• Build strong relationships across the organization to ensure visual merchandising is integrated into broader business planning rather than operating solely as an execution function.

Business Performance & Operational Excellence

• Own the development of visual merchandising strategies that contribute to sales growth, conversion, average transaction value, product productivity, and four-wall profitability.

• Establish key performance indicators and reporting structures to evaluate the commercial effectiveness of merchandising strategies across the fleet.

• Develop and leverage tools and analytical frameworks to measure space productivity, category performance, product placement effectiveness, and merchandising return on investment.

• Partner with Retail Planning and Operations to identify performance gaps and implement merchandising actions that improve inventory productivity, sell-through, and overall store contribution.

• Establish a structured test-and-learn approach to merchandising, evaluating new product placement strategies, fixture configurations, and presentation concepts before scaling successful initiatives.

• Build scalable operational processes, merchandising systems, and execution standards that reduce complexity and improve consistency as the retail footprint expands.

• Own visual merchandising budgets, resource allocation, and investment recommendations, ensuring spending is aligned with commercial priorities and measurable business impact, including throughout the NSO process.

• Provide regular business updates and strategic recommendations to retail leadership, highlighting performance trends, key opportunities, and actions being taken to improve results.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive retail visual merchandising experience, including significant leadership experience across multi-store retail organizations with effective cross-functional collaboration.

• Experience supporting new store openings, retail expansion, and multiple store formats.

• Proven experience developing and leading visual merchandising strategies that deliver measurable improvements in sales performance, product productivity, and profitability.

• Strong commercial acumen with a deep understanding of retail financial performance, merchandise planning, inventory management, and key retail KPIs.

• Demonstrated ability to leverage data and analytics to inform merchandising decisions, influence product strategies, and drive business results.

• Experience building or significantly evolving visual merchandising functions, including developing processes, tools, standards, and scalable operating structures.

• Strong understanding of retail assortment architecture, product storytelling, space planning, and customer shopping behavior.

• Proven ability to influence senior leadership and cross-functional partners, particularly across Product, Planning, Marketing, and Retail Operations.

• Experience partnering directly with Planning and Product teams to influence assortment decisions and retail inventory investments.

• Experience developing and leading high-performing teams, including coaching field leaders and building organizational capabilities.

• Strong strategic thinking combined with a hands-on approach to execution and problem-solving.

• Excellent communication, organizational, and project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.

• Comfortable operating in a high-growth, entrepreneurial retail environment with frequent travel.

Nice to Have

• Experience building or scaling a visual merchandising function within a high-growth, digitally native, or direct-to-consumer brand expanding into physical retail.

Why Join the company?

• Be part of a purpose-driven company that’s shaping the future of comfort and mental wellness.

• Work in a supportive, creative environment where your ideas and growth are valued.

• Enjoy the company benefits such as generous paid time off, company-covered health insurance, 5% 401k match, and discounts on all the company products!

• Join a passionate team making an impact on exciting projects, all while enjoying the flexibility and collaborative support of a fully remote environment.

• The salary range for this role is $150,000–$170,000 annually. Actual compensation will be determined based on experience, skills, qualifications, and geographic location, where applicable. This range represents the anticipated base salary and does not include bonus, benefits, or other forms of compensation.

Comfort is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills.