Retail strategy & execution · Soft goods · Greater Cleveland · travel nationwide
Helping soft goods brands, boutiques, and golf club pro shops run assortment, site, and store as one — without the guesswork. Based in Greater Cleveland. Travel nationwide.
A short conversation about your business — no pitch deck.
Assortment & buying
Inventory & margin
Site merchandising & UX
Store experience
Launches & campaigns
A buying consultant won't touch your website. An agency will redesign your homepage but can't read an open-to-buy. Meanwhile the actual problem lives in between — the assortment you bought, how it shows up online and on the floor, and whether the store experience and foot traffic actually convert that buy into full-price sell-through.
The Merch Method works across the whole path, because that's how I've operated: seven-plus years spanning buying, planning, ecommerce merchandising, and in-store experience for national retail and direct-to-consumer brands. Retail math, the digital shelf, and the floor — as one system.
The Method
The assortment decision is where margin is won or lost. We build the plan before the money is spent.
Product has to land the same way on the shelf, on the site, and in the inbox. Omnichannel is a merchandising job, not a marketing afterthought.
Then we trade the business — reading what's working weekly and acting while it still matters.
Services
Category strategy, buy plans, product flow, and forecasts tied to real demand.
Weekly performance reads, markdown and promo strategy, open-to-buy protection.
Collections, PDP and PLP, navigation, search, and page-building on Shopify, Squarespace, Square, and other retail platforms.
Floor edit, visual storytelling, newness cadence, and local drivers that get people in the door — and give them a reason to return.
One product story across store, site, email, SMS, and social — on one calendar.
New margin streams that fit the brand — in-store tailoring, styling, events, loyalty.
Cadence, reporting, and decision frameworks an owner can run without a merch org.
How we start
A clear-eyed review of your assortment, inventory position, digital shelf, and in-store experience — with a prioritized list of what to fix first.
One thing done properly: a season planned, a site rebuilt around how people actually shop, a launch executed end to end.
Senior merchandising leadership on a part-time basis — planning, trading, and cadence, without a full-time hire.
The difference
Soft goods boutiques often choose between an inventory-planning partner (open-to-buy, cash flow, what to buy and when) and a creative or site freelancer who never touches the buy. Both matter — but sell-through happens in the gap between them. The Merch Method is built for that gap: assortment and trading discipline plus how product shows up on your site, in your store, and across every channel.
If you already have a strong inventory plan, I can plug into the rest of the path — digital shelf, store experience, and campaign execution — so the buy actually converts.
About the founder
Founder, The Merch Method
I've spent my career on the commercial side of retail: buying, site merchandising, and UX building at Dick's Sporting Goods — where I rebuilt category taxonomy and navigation for a national catalog — then direct-to-consumer merchandising at Carhartt, where I own assortment strategy, forecasting, and how product shows up for the customer.
That means I've sat in both chairs. I can build a buy plan and read an open-to-buy, and I can go into your platform — Shopify, Squarespace, Square, or whatever runs your store — and fix why a category isn't converting. Most consultants do one or the other. The work almost always lives in both.
The same discipline applies on the sales floor. A strong in-person shopping experience is what brings people in and brings them back — how product is edited and presented, how newness and storytelling show up in the store, and how the space feels when someone walks through the door. I help owners build and maintain foot traffic by aligning assortment, visual merchandising, events, and local buzz with what's actually on the rack and on the site — so the store isn't competing with the website; they're working together.
My focus is soft goods — apparel, accessories, and lifestyle — with hard goods experience from the sporting goods side. I'm based in Greater Cleveland and I travel for the work when a floor, a buy meeting, or a shop visit needs to happen in person — local clubs and boutiques, or brands and retailers across the US.
I'm also just a straightforward person to work with. No jargon, no theater — I'd rather sit down, understand your business, and tell you honestly where I can help.
FAQ
Inventory planning partners often focus on open-to-buy, cash flow, and what to buy. Merchandising consulting also covers how product shows up on your site and floor, how launches run across channels, and whether the buy converts at full price. The Merch Method is built for that full path — not the buy alone.
Not always. If you already have a strong inventory plan, I can plug into site merchandising, store experience, and campaign execution so the buy actually sells through. If you need both the buy and the show, we can cover the full path.
Soft goods boutiques with stores and/or an online shop, founder-led brands past launch, and golf club / private club pro shops that need senior merchandising without a full-time hire.
Senior merchandising leadership on a part-time basis — planning, trading, assortment edit, and floor or site direction — without adding a full-time headcount.
Both. I'm based in Greater Cleveland and I travel nationwide when the work needs to happen on the floor — shop resets, buy meetings, outing merch planning, or a diagnostic that requires walking the space. Remote cadence covers planning, trading, and site work between visits.
Yes. Site merchandising and UX on Shopify, Squarespace, Square, and other retail platforms — plus the buy and floor so online and in-store aren't fighting each other.
Let's talk
Tell me a little about your business and what's feeling hard right now. If I can help, I'll say so. If I can't, I'll tell you that too.
