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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Retailer Communications and Engagement Manager

💰 $75,000 - $130,000

RetailMarketingCommunicationsCustomer EngagementChannel Marketing

🎯 Role Definition

The Retailer Communications and Engagement Manager is a strategic, execution-focused role responsible for building and maintaining effective communications and engagement programs with retail partners. This role develops go-to-market messaging, trade and promotional communications, retailer-facing training and enablement, and joint business planning materials that increase category performance, drive promotional effectiveness, and strengthen long-term retail partnerships. The ideal candidate combines retail account management experience, strong cross-functional collaboration, and data-driven program measurement to deliver consistent retailer experiences across e-commerce and bricks-and-mortar channels.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Retail Account Coordinator or Retail Sales Representative
  • Trade Marketing Specialist or Shopper Marketing Coordinator
  • CRM / Loyalty Marketing Manager

Advancement To:

  • Senior Retailer Communications Manager
  • Head of Retail Partnerships or Channel Marketing Director
  • Director of Trade & Shopper Marketing

Lateral Moves:

  • Category Manager (Retail)
  • E-commerce Merchandising or Marketplace Manager
  • Shopper Marketing Manager or Retail Operations Lead

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop, own and execute the annual retailer communications and engagement strategy across key retail partners, aligning communications calendars to category trade plans, assortment launches, promotional windows and seasonal peaks to maximize sell-through and margin.
  • Build and manage retailer-specific communication plans, including weekly retailer newsletters, promotional flyers, POS updates, retailer portals, field sales enablement packets, and playbooks to ensure consistent messaging and adherence to commercial agreements.
  • Lead the creation and distribution of retailer-facing content (training modules, sell sheets, planogram rationale, promotional toolkits, video demos) that empowers retail buyers, category managers, and in-store teams to execute promotions and product placement effectively.
  • Serve as primary communications liaison for top-tier retail accounts, coordinating joint business planning, internal stakeholder alignment, and cross-functional follow-through to ensure retailer objectives are met and escalations are resolved quickly.
  • Design and implement engagement programs such as retailer webinars, buyer forums, in-store demos, sampling programs, co-op advertising campaigns, and retailer incentive programs to deepen partnerships and accelerate conversion.
  • Partner with commercial analytics and insights teams to translate retail performance data into actionable communications and engagement tactics; produce monthly retailer performance summaries, deck presentations, and prioritized recommendations.
  • Manage the calendar and operational delivery of retailer promotions, including briefing creative, coordinating approvals, tracking assets, and confirming on-shelf/activity execution against agreed KPIs and vendor agreements.
  • Lead retailer onboarding and enablement for new product launches and assortment changes—develop launch kits, retailer FAQs, training schedules, merchandising guides and field sales talking points to ensure strong initial velocity.
  • Develop and maintain retailer communication workflows, governance, approval matrices and SLAs to optimize speed-to-market, reduce message fatigue, and maintain compliance with retailer brand and legal requirements.
  • Execute segmentation and personalization strategies for retailer communications using CRM and partner data—tailor messaging to buyer personas, store formats, regional behaviors and account value to increase relevance and actionability.
  • Collaborate with internal marketing, creative, and digital teams to produce high-quality retailer collateral and co-branded assets, ensuring content meets retailer specs, accessibility guidelines, and measurement tagging requirements.
  • Implement A/B testing and continuous optimization on retailer email campaigns, portal content and promotional messaging to improve open rates, engagement, and retailer activation metrics.
  • Own retailer communications budgets and co-op spend planning for engagement programs; negotiate media, production and service contracts to deliver efficient, high-impact partner campaigns.
  • Coordinate field and account teams to validate in-store execution, collect qualitative insights from retail staff, and close the feedback loop between store-level observations and national retailer strategy.
  • Build and maintain retailer-facing dashboards and KPI scorecards (velocity, conversion, on-shelf availability, promotional ROI) and present results in monthly or quarterly retailer business reviews and executive summaries.
  • Drive retailer compliance initiatives including product information management (PIM) coordination, UPC/data integrity checks, and promotional pricing alignment to prevent execution errors and reconciliation disputes.
  • Lead cross-functional project management for retailer activations: define timelines, resource allocations, risk registers and governance to ensure timely delivery of retailer initiatives across merchandising, supply chain and marketing.
  • Manage relationships with external agencies, creative partners and technology vendors supporting retailer portals, CMS implementations, digital merchandising and retailer CRM integrations.
  • Lead continuous improvement initiatives to streamline retailer communication processes, reduce manual handoffs, and increase automation using marketing automation tools (e.g., Marketo, Braze) and CRM platforms (e.g., Salesforce).
  • Coach and mentor junior communications or retail account specialists, set performance goals, review work quality, and help develop their skills in retail communication best practices and stakeholder management.
  • Facilitate retailer negotiation support during promotional planning cycles, providing data-backed communication assets and rationale to support recommended promotional structures and trade spend.
  • Ensure that all retailer communications are compliant with legal, regulatory, promotions and retailer-specific advertising standards and that documentation is stored and auditable for reconciliation.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Assist with retailer audit responses and documentation for promotional reconciliations when requested.
  • Provide subject-matter expertise on retailer communication best practices to cross-functional project teams.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Retail partner communications strategy and execution
  • CRM and retailer engagement platforms (Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics CRM)
  • Marketing automation and email platforms (Marketo, Braze, Iterable)
  • Promotion management systems and trade spend tools
  • Data analysis and visualization (Excel advanced, Tableau, Power BI)
  • Retail performance analytics and KPI measurement (sell-in, sell-through, velocity)
  • A/B testing methodologies and campaign optimization
  • Content management systems (CMS) and retailer portal administration
  • Basic HTML/CSS for email and web template troubleshooting
  • Project management tools and methodologies (Jira, Asana, MS Project)
  • Knowledge of retailer planograms, POS requirements, and assortment planning
  • Contract and co-op advertising budget management
  • Familiarity with PIM, GTIN/UPC data and product metadata standards

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional written and verbal communication tailored for buyer and retail audiences
  • Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration
  • Strategic thinking with an ability to translate insights into actionable retailer programs
  • Negotiation and influence to align internal and external partners
  • High attention to detail and process orientation for error-free execution
  • Proactive problem solving and escalation management
  • Presentation and facilitation skills for retailer business reviews and training
  • Adaptability in a fast-paced, retail calendar-driven environment
  • Leadership and people development for mentoring junior staff
  • Customer-centric mindset focused on retailer experience and outcomes

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business Administration, Communications, Retail Management, or related field.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree or MBA with concentrations in Marketing, Retail Strategy or Business Analytics.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Marketing
  • Communications
  • Retail Management
  • Business Administration
  • Data Analytics / Business Intelligence

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 5 – 8+ years of experience in retail account management, channel marketing, trade marketing or CRM/engagement roles with demonstrated experience managing retailer relationships.

Preferred:

  • Proven track record of managing top-tier retail accounts (national chains, e-commerce marketplaces) and delivering measurable promotional lift.
  • Experience with omnichannel retailer programs, shopper marketing, and coordination between supply chain, merchandising and marketing functions.
  • Demonstrated success using retail analytics and CRM tools to inform engagement strategies and measure ROI.
  • Prior experience managing agencies and external vendors supporting retailer communications and portal technologies.
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