Industry Innovation Principal - Retail Merchandising (Consultant)

Retail Merchandising Consultant Part-Time Independent Consultant | North America | Remote ENGAGEMENT COMPENSATION DURATION POSITIONS 5-10 hours/week Hourly commensurate with experience. 90-day retainer 2-3 hires IN EXCHANGE... RELEX WILL TEACH YOU You bring the merchandising expertise. We give you incredibly valuable AI skills for free. RELEX will teach you how to build autonomous agents and societies of agents that you can introduce into any corporate environment. You'll learn from the industry-leading unified merchandising platform (forecast replenishment, demand planning, price promotions, space assortment, MFP, and store operations in one platform) while gaining hands-on experience with agentic AI, retailer leadership networking, industry podcasts, and thought leadership that will transform your career trajectory. The Opportunity RELEX Solutions' Field Innovation VIT Team (Value Engineering, Innovation and Technology) is building an Innovation Incubator, a network of retail practitioners who lead workflow discussions and bring deep thought leadership from firsthand, on-the-job experience. We need people who live (or recently lived) the day-to-day life of a merchandiser at a North American retailer to shape how RELEX builds, demonstrates, and deploys its platform. As a Retail Merchandising Consultant, you will lead workflow discussions that define modern merchandising operations, from Monday morning meetings to promotional planning to assortment reviews. Your practitioner lens and firsthand experience will directly inform our demo flows, agentic AI workflows, and product marketing for the world's leading retailers. What You'll Do Workflow Journeys Day-in-the-Life Narratives Lead discussions on the full merchandising lifecycle : weekly cadence meetings, assortment reviews, base pricing, promotional planning optimization, allocation, and replenishment Share cross-functional touchpoints : how merchandising interacts with supply chain, store operations, finance, and marketing teams Whiteboard detailed day-in-the-life narratives for key personas (Category Manager, Demand Planner, Pricing Analyst, Assortment Planner) across Grocery, DIY, and Specialty retail Identify decision points, data dependencies, and pain points in each workflow that RELEX solutions address Demo Agentic Workflow Input Validate demo scenarios against real-world practice : are the storylines, data volumes, and decision sequences realistic? Provide scenario briefs with realistic data stories for presales demonstrations Inform agentic AI workflow design by describing how practitioners actually make decisions, what triggers actions, and where automation would add the most value Review and stress-test new product features from a practitioner perspective before customer-facing launches Optional: Thought Leadership Industry Engagement Co-author blog posts, white papers, and industry articles drawing on your hands-on merchandising experience Participate in podcast episodes and webinars as a practitioner voice alongside RELEX product and strategy leaders Attend and contribute to retailer networking events , building your professional network alongside RELEX's customer and prospect communities Contribute to RELEX's emerging thought leadership on agentic retail operations Segment Focus Areas GROCERY DIY / HOME IMPROVEMENT SPECIALTY RETAIL Fresh perishables Promotional optimization Weekly ad planning Vendor collaboration Planogram execution Seasonal planning Assortment localization Space optimization Project/event buys Pro vs. consumer mix Long-tail assortment Allocation transfers MFP integration Markdown cadence Lifecycle pricing Who You Are Required 5+ years of hands-on merchandising experience at a North American retailer (Grocery, DIY/Home Improvement, or Specialty) Currently active in a retail merchandising role OR recently transitioned (within last 1-2 years) from a retail operator position Deep w ... (truncated, view full listing at source)