Filling a VP of Merchandising at a DTC Brand

Write down whether the gap is merchandising and inventory strategy, growth marketing and paid acquisition, or some blend of both, since DTC leadership titles often blur these together in ways that don't match what any one person can realistically own well. Being specific here sharpens the search on either platform.

A permanent VP-level hire fits a brand building out a lasting leadership structure. A narrower need, like fixing a specific inventory planning process before a peak season, can be a good fit for a fractional engagement through Bolster instead, without committing to permanent headcount before the need is fully proven out.

Hunt Club's referral network works well for brands ready to make a permanent, full-time leadership hire with real authority over merchandising or growth decisions. Bolster's marketplace fits a brand still working out its leadership structure, letting you test a fractional leader's judgment before committing to a permanent role.

Don't default to a permanent search just because the title sounds senior; a lot of DTC brands really need someone for a defined problem, like fixing a broken demand forecast, more than a full-time executive.

SHRM's 2025 benchmarking survey has two figures worth knowing: a nonexecutive hire averages $5,475, and an executive hire averages $35,879 once agency fees and internal recruiting hours are counted¹. A retained Hunt Club search for a permanent leader will track toward that executive figure; a fractional engagement through Bolster runs as a smaller ongoing rate instead.

If your brand carries a revolving line of credit to fund inventory ahead of peak seasons, remember that many small business credit lines price off the prime rate, which sat at 6.75% as of mid-2026². A merchandising leader who gets inventory timing wrong doesn't just create a stockout or overstock problem; they add real carrying cost on borrowed capital while that inventory sits unsold.

Ask any finalist how they think about that tradeoff explicitly: would they rather risk a stockout or risk carrying excess inventory on a line of credit, and why. Their answer reveals how they actually weigh cost of capital against lost sales, which matters more than a generic answer about balancing supply and demand.

A typical nonexecutive search runs a median 44 days from requisition to offer accepted by SHRM's 2025 count, and executive-level searches routinely stretch beyond that³. Count backward from your next major selling season to see whether a Hunt Club search realistically fits, or whether a faster Bolster engagement is the more practical near-term choice.

Ask candidates to walk through a real inventory decision they made that didn't go as planned, and press on what they changed afterward. A candidate who can only describe successes hasn't shown you how they handle the mistakes that inevitably happen in demand planning, which is the more useful signal for this role.

Whoever fills this seat should be producing a real, defensible demand forecast for your next selling season within their first sixty days, not just settling into the role slowly. Set that expectation explicitly before the search starts, on either platform, so it's part of how you evaluate fit from the first interview rather than a surprise once they've started.

Give the new hire access to at least two full selling cycles of historical data on day one, since a forecast built on thin or incomplete history is only marginally better than a guess, no matter how experienced the person building it is or how confident they sound presenting it to the rest of the team.

Founders sometimes hire a senior merchandising or growth leader and then continue making every meaningful call themselves, which defeats the purpose of the hire and frustrates a capable person quickly. Decide in advance which decisions genuinely transfer to the new leader, like reorder quantities under a certain dollar threshold, and which stay with the founder, and say so explicitly during the interview process.

A candidate worth hiring will ask about this directly. Treat that question as a good sign, not a red flag, since it means they're thinking seriously about whether the role as described actually matches the role as it will really be lived day to day.

Here is the process in order:

1. Write down whether the gap is merchandising, growth marketing or a blend, since DTC titles often blur the two.
2. Match the search to your growth stage: Hunt Club for a permanent hire, Bolster to test a fractional leader first.
3. Count backward from your next major selling season to see whether a Hunt Club search fits or a faster option is needed.
4. Ask candidates to walk through an inventory decision that went wrong and what they changed afterward.
5. Set the expectation that the new leader produces a defensible demand forecast for the next selling season within the first sixty days.
6. Decide in advance which decisions transfer to the new leader so the founder doesn't keep making every call.