Vacancy Introduction

Come and join our team!

We’re looking for a commercially minded and analytically driven Merchandising Analyst to join our Commercial team at Wherstead Park. In this vital role, you’ll be helping to shape how products appear in our stores, ensuring the right products are in the right places to maximise impact and enhance customer experience.

You’ll be confident using merchandising systems and space planning tools to support product placement decisions, and able to combine performance data and store feedback to make recommendations that really make a difference. You’ll collaborate with colleagues across commercial, trading, and retail teams, working on promotional activity and range changes, and proactively identifying opportunities to drive performance.

Want to know more? Take a look at our job description for the role here.

Our working patterns are non-contractual. Any advertised working pattern represents the normal working pattern for the role at time of advertisement and may be subject to change.

What you’ll be doing

As a Merchandising Analyst, you’ll take the lead in conducting regular range reviews, building and maintaining planograms, and supporting promotional activity within your assigned categories. You’ll collaborate closely with colleagues in commercial, trading, and retail teams to ensure our merchandising strategies support business goals. You’ll also use data and field insights to improve performance and identify opportunities for growth, making recommendations that shape future merchandising decisions.

The person we are looking for 

We’re after someone who can hit the ground running with a solid background in space planning and merchandising. Ideally, you’ll have:

• Practical experience in space planning, merchandising, or category management
• Confidence using merchandising systems, forecasting tools, and space planning software (e.g., JDA)
• Strong analytical skills – you’ll be comfortable using commercial data to guide decisions
• Experience working with commercial, trading, and shop teams to improve product placement
• A track record of managing and implementing promotional ranges effectively
• Understanding of shop operations and customer behaviour (desirable)
• A proactive and solutions-focused mindset, able to adapt to changing priorities and business needs
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills across a range of stakeholders

Perks of the job

At the East of England Co-op, we strive to be the best place to work. We invest in our colleagues to help them to progress in their careers and achieve their full potential. How do we do this?  

• Competitive rates of pay
• 20% discount in our food stores, along with other discounts across our family of businesses
• 25 days holiday (plus bank holiday entitlement) which increases with service
• 5% employer pension contribution
• Death in service benefit
• Enhanced family leave and pay arrangements*
• Opportunities to grow, with award-winning training and apprenticeship programmes
• Great discounts, deals, and cashback across over 900 high street and online retailers
• Financial wellbeing support, including Wagestream®
• Access to Cycle To Work, Rental Deposit Scheme, and SmartTech (after a qualifying period)
• Employee Recognition Scheme
• Long Service Awards
• Free remote GP service, available 24/7, including prescription, fitness, nutrition, and counselling services
• Employee Assistance Programme

Check out the detail of all our colleague benefits here.

We recognise the challenges people face trying to balance commitments both in and out of the workplace - perhaps studying, caring commitments, or other employment. We therefore aim to be as flexible as possible, to create shift patterns that work for both our co-op and our colleagues.

* Enhanced on statutory terms, subject to service criteria

East of England Co-op