CALEB ISAC

I am currently working at Sephora New Market as the Skincare Department Manager. My responsibilities include:

• Collaborating with other departments to ensure seamless coordination in achieving company-wide objectives.
• Improving customer satisfaction rates through attentive service, prompt issue resolution, and continuous process improvements.
• Maintaining a professional work environment by addressing conflicts proactively and fostering open communication among staff members.
• Establishing clear performance expectations for staff members which led to increased accountability.
• Enhancing department efficiency by streamlining processes and implementing time-saving strategies.

We also have a function at Sephora called "MIC" which stands for "Manager In Charge". When you are the manager in charge for that hour or couple of hours you act as the store manager for that time, overseeing and over viewing all aspects of the business.

I joined the COS Commercial Bay team in August 2023 as a part time sales advisor with the intention to further my studies at university but decided to take on a full time sales advisor contract in the new year instead. Across my time at COS I was a part of multiple sale set ups, stock takes, VM launches and did a lot of work in the stockroom as an auditor where I would regularly re-organize and re-structure the layout of the stockroom for better day to day use and efficiency.

I joined the team at Connor Sylvia Park as the Store Manager in December of 2022 and stayed through to early August 2023. I managed a team of 13 people in a flagship standard store and also traveled to the other Auckland stores to help with coaching new managers/team and also setting up Visual Merchandising launches across all Auckland stores.

My role responsibilties were:

• Understanding and aligning with company values
• Creating a safe environment for my team to come to work
• Effectively adjusting my leadership style to meet the needs of different people/situations
• Motivating and inspiring my team to exceed brand standards
• Thinking ahead and outside of the box with a solution based mindset
• Training/coaching and leading by example
• Giving honest and constructive feedback to my team
• Developing structured performance management plans
• Goal setting: daily plans, weekly targets, monthly reviews
• Analyzing category report to impact sales in store
• Visual Merchandising, promotional set ups, sale execution
• Admin: Rosters, banking, timesheet approvals, budgeting planner

I joined the H&M Botany store as the senior visual merchandiser in April 2022 where I was working on a VM team overseeing another visual merchandiser and a trainee visual merchandiser.

My role responsibilities included:

• Organizing the store team planner to ensure there is an effective weekly schedule to ensure efficiency on all daily routines
• Rematches and recovery for all departments store wide
• Attending weekly conference calls with our area management team to keep up to date on all brand updates securing our KPI's
• Running morning meetings and managers meetings to ensure the entire team is on the same page with our daily/weekly goals
• Executing and signing off all campaigns in store
• Updating the window displays and indoor displays weekly
• Keeping constant communication and feedback with my area visual merchandising manager to ensure our store is on par with brand standards
• Training and guiding the VM team
• Working closely with the store manager to align our plans in organizing and implementing strategy around KPI's in store

After working in the JayJays Sylvia Park store for 6 months as a 3IC key holder, I was ready to enter the assistant store manager role in the JayJays Botany store.

My role responsibilities were:

• Assisting the store manager in organizing, planning and implementing strategy around KPI's in store
• Ensuring store schedules and objectives are met by the team
• Coordinating daily customer service operations (e.g sales processes, orders and payments)
• Tracking the progress of weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual objectives
• Monitoring and maintaining store inventory
• Evaluate employee performance and identify hiring and training needs
• Supervising and motivating staff to perform their best
• Coaching and supporting new and existing Sales Associates
• Communicate with clients and evaluate their needs
• Analyzing consumer behaviour and adjust product positioning

I joined The Just Group NZ in Oct of 2020 as a 3IC Key Holder for the Jay-Jays store in Sylvia Park. My role responsibilities involved assisting the Store Manager and Assistant Store Manager in organizing the store for us to achieve our goals and KPI's for the week.

In the time that I worked at Jay jays Sylvia Park I worked as closely as possible with the store manager to learn as much as I could about Jay jays as a brand and what their standards and best practices are.

My responsibilities were:

• Setting up the daily comms and budget
• General banking and money handling including float cash up and cash-office/admin
• Processing stock from the daily delivery
• Direct customer service
• Store recovery
• Line counts for loss prevention
• Stocktake

I re-joined the H&M group as a sales advisor until a role opened back up for me to join the Visual Merchandiser team as the Womenswear department VM at the H&M Commercial Bay store, starting in Accessories and eventually moving through the wider Womenswear department.

As the Visual Merchandiser for the Womenswear department (alongside the department manager) my purpose was to organize our team and stock within our department to achieve H&M best practice standards and keep our sales on par with our target of 43% of the stores share of business.

• I achieved maintaining this sales target and fulfilling my role by:
• Defining and understanding my target audience and their customer profiles
• Creating appealing and eye-catching purchase suggestions
• Having fashion knowledge, an eye for detail and understanding current fashion trends
• Regular market research on competitors and what their sales strategies are
• Producing window displays, signs, interior displays, and floor plans
• Identifying and placing key garments and top priority products for maximum sales
• Come up with, revise and present design ideas with the VM team
• Act in alignment to H&M culture and setting a good example for the team
• Being conscious of costs and sales
• Overseeing the production and briefing staff on maintaining VM standards across the store
• Regularly changing displays to promote new collection launches and reflect seasonal themes
• Liaising with the merchandising team to source materials or products for new collections
• In my time working at H&M Commercial Bay I was also selected to be part of the expansion team and was sent to Christchurch to open the H&M Riccarton store in November 2019
• I stayed and worked in the store for a month to help train their new management team on H&M best practices and visual merchandising standards, making the Riccarton store my fifth store opening/expansion for H&M New Zealand

I joined the team at Zara as a visual merchandiser in the kidswear department and eventually moved over to the women's department where I spent most of my time in this role.

In my time at Zara, I learnt the businesses processes and procedures in regards to stockroom/ back of house operations, shop floor maintenance and brand image standards, RFID system knowledge and money-mapping, reading and understanding sales reports for accessories, shoes and clothing.

I was a part of the storewide sale set up over the Christmas period and worked with the rest of the visual merchandising team to uphold the Zara brand image with the set-up of regular in coming collections.

Throughout my time as a visual merchandiser at H&M I had executed the set up of all new trends that entered the store, and sale set ups and promotions in all departments including H&M's designer collaborations with internationally recognized designers such as Kenzo and Erdem.

I also was the sole responsible for setting up the Ladies Department (largest share of business, main entrance, window/podium/indoor set up) for the Sylvia Park, Christchurch, and Wellington stores.

My main responsibilities within this role also included:

• Defining and understanding my target audience and their customer profiles
• Creating appealing and eye-catching purchase suggestions
• Having fashion knowledge, an eye for detail and understanding current fashion trends
• Regular market research on competitors and what their sales strategies are
• Producing window displays, signs, interior displays, and floor plans
• Identifying and placing key garments and top priority products for maximum sales
• Come up with, revise and present design ideas with the VM team
• Act in alignment to H&M culture and setting a good example for the team
• Being conscious of costs and sales
• Overseeing the production and briefing staff on maintaining VM standards across the store
• Regularly changing displays to promote new collection launches and reflect seasonal themes
• Liaising with the merchandising team to source materials or products for new collections
• I have worked alongside store managers and management teams across a majority of H&M New Zealand stores and was a part of head office management meetings for kick offs, season starts and quarterly reviews
• In this role I played a big part in introducing best practice and visual merchandising standards across the brand in New Zealand and passed my knowledge on via training new visual merchandisers for new stores and my home store

In my time at H&M Sylvia Park I became a regular member of the store expansion team and travelled the county to set up new stores and train new teams on H&M best practices and visual merchandising standards.

I started at H&M as a Sales Advisor and became a Visual Merchandiser within my first 6 months of working at the Sylvia Park flagship store.

I was one of the first ever full-time sales advisors hired to open and introduce H&M to New Zealand and was selected to work in the Pitt Street store in Sydney for my initial training in this role.

I had one of the fastest progression rates in H&M New Zealand and worked my way through the stores departments including kids wear, Menswear and Womenswear until I became a visual merchandiser and eventually a visual merchandising trainer for new visual merchandisers that joined our business nationally.

As a Senior Sales Assistant I held extra responsibility within the store. I assisted with supervising the store team whilst working alongside them to maximize sales and conversion.

I helped to keep an overview of my department to ensure all functions were covered, supporting where necessary.

• I trained new team members in daily routines, security, Kmart's best practices, health & safety, and POS
• I also assisted with many store functions including supporting the management team running the shop floor and deliveries, running the set-up and execution of stock take, running the stores information desk and customer service phone and Visual Merchandising in accordance with new brief setups and promotions
• Being a Senior Sales Assistant solidified my passion for Visual Merchandising; this position taught me a lot more of the behind the scenes work that goes into store appearance
• I would execute complete brief setups confidently without any assistance, using my flexibility and creativity
• In my time at Kmart, I also was part of the expansion team and assisted in setting up and opening two stores in the Tauranga region
• I also was part of the store refits for St.Luke's and Henderson