Digital Merchandiser Analyst - Petcare (Canada)

Job Description:

The Digital Merchandiser & Graphic Designer plays a critical part in bringing the iconic Mars Petcare portfolio (including beloved brands such as PEDIGREE®, IAMS®, CESAR®, WHISKAS®, SHEBA®, and TEMPTATIONS™) to life online across our digital commerce retailer websites. In addition to driving digital commerce excellence and category growth in service of our purpose— A Better World for Pets —this is a hybrid role bridging operational digital shelf management with hands-on visual content creation. The role leverages traditional graphic design expertise alongside modern Generative AI workflows to deliver engaging, pet-parent-centric, and high-converting digital shopping experiences.

The successful candidate will be responsible for maintaining a best-in-class digital shelf presence across key retail partners, including Amazon, Walmart, PetSmart, Instacart, etc. Concurrently, this individual will act as an in-house visual creator, designing and producing digital assets—including Product Detail Page (PDP) enhanced content, hero images, mobile-ready carousels, feeding guide infographics, and promotional banners—while leveraging analytics to optimize performance, drive conversion, and elevate brand equity.

This is a hybrid role based out of our Canadian head office in Bolton, Ontario . Flexibility is a key enabler—empowering associates to make choices that support both business outcomes and personal needs, including remote work.

What are we looking for?

• •Post-secondary education in Graphic Design, Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Marketing, or a related field.
• •2 to 4 years of hands-on experience in digital merchandising, digital shelf management, and/or digital graphic design (CPG, pet specialty, agency, or retail experience preferred).
• •Strong technical proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud (particularly Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign) with a portfolio demonstrating commercial layout, typography, photo retouching, and product staging.
• •Practical experience incorporating Generative AI creative tools (e.g., Adobe Firefly, Midjourney, Photoshop Generative Fill) to accelerate visual content concepting, pet lifestyle background staging, and asset variations.
• •Strong proficiency navigating key vendor and content management platforms (e.g., Amazon Vendor Central, Salsify, Syndigo, Walmart Supplier One)
• •Familiarity or hands-on experience with digital shelf analytics and benchmarking tools such as Profitero and NIQ Digital Shelf for tracking digital store health and competitive performance.
• •Passion for pets and an understanding of pet-parent shopper journeys, claims, and pack-communication dynamics (e.g., life-stage nutrition, ingredient callouts, flavor varieties, feeding guidelines).
• •Strong analytical mindset with the ability to translate digital shelf scorecards and conversion metrics into actionable visual and catalogue enhancements.
• •Proven project management skills, meticulous attention to detail, and a commitment to maintaining high visual standards and brand compliance on tight deadlines.

What will be your key responsibilities?

Digital Shelf & Content Managemen t:

• •Own the end-to-end management, maintenance, and syndication of digital product catalogues across major pureplay, omnichannel, and pet-specialty retail platforms.
• •Manage and optimize the end-to-end product data lifecycle within Salsify PXM, ensuring absolute data accuracy, consistency, and completeness across all digital touchpoints (customer site and brand-owned sites)
• •Build, maintain, and publish optimized product content syndication channels to major retailer and e-commerce endpoints (e.g., Amazon, Walmart, etc.), ensuring strict compliance with unique retailer schemas.
• •Ingest, transform, and enrich raw product data from ERP, PLM, or DAM systems into Salsify, utilizing formulas, inheritance rules, and bulk-import workflows.
• •Serve as the dedicated subject matter expert for Salsify, Amazon Vendor Central, and Walmart Supplier One.
• •Proactively audit listings, identify, troubleshoot, and resolve backend catalogue issues, including content errors, listing suppressions, broken variations, out-of-date packaging renders, and availability discrepancies.
• •Drive "Perfect Digital Store" execution across retail partners, continuously optimizing search visibility, taxonomy, category placement, nutritional search attributes, and content completeness.
• •Partner with Sales and Customer Marketing teams to ensure all new product innovations, seasonal multipacks, and promotional SKUs are launched on time with complete, retailer-compliant digital assets.

Graphic Design & AI Content Creation:

• •Design and produce high-quality, mobile-optimized visual assets for Product Detail Pages (PDPs), including hero packaging imagery, benefit callout tiles, nutritional breakdown carousels, and Amazon A+ / Enhanced Brand Content (EBC).
• •Leverage Generative AI creative workflows (such as Adobe Firefly and Midjourney) for rapid ideation, composite lifestyle backgrounds featuring dogs and cats, contextual feeding scenarios, and seasonal campaign variations.
• •Maintain complete brand consistency across all touchpoints, adhering strictly to Mars Petcare brand visual identities, regulatory labeling standards, and retailer technical specifications.
• •Manage and organize the internal digital asset management (DAM) system and master design files, ensuring cross-functional teams have easy access to approved, production-ready creative.
• •Adapt and localize national brand campaign assets and packaging graphics into commercial, click-worthy digital retail banners and point-of-sale assets.

Content Strategy & Optimization:

• •Develop and execute digital merchandising strategies that enhance the online pet-parent shopping journey and drive sales conversion across Pureplay, Omnichannel, and On-Demand Delivery channels.
• •Implement A/B testing on visual assets (e.g., packaging angles, benefit badges, flavor descriptors) to determine optimal creative resonance and conversion uplift.
• •Collaborate with internal Brand, Consumer Experience, and agency partners to align on asset briefing, content syndication timelines, and digital shelf best practices.
• •Monitor competitor activities, pet industry trends, and retailer algorithmic shifts to recommend proactive creative and merchandising optimizations.
• •Identify and close content gaps by translating Genrise generated briefs into actionable updates that serve human shoppers, AI assistants (e.g., Amazon Rufus), and autonomous buying agents simultaneously.
• •Leverage real-time SEO grading features to perform on-page optimization—including keyword density, meta descriptions
• •Manage the "human-in-the-loop" approval pipeline, reviewing AI-generated drafts from Genrise and Writer AI for absolute factual accuracy, compliance, and claims validation before pushing live

dComm Analytics & Reporting :

• •Leverage Profitero and NielsenIQ (NIQ) to measure, audit, and benchmark digital shelf performance across key retail accounts, monitoring KPIs such as search rank, out-of-stock (OOS) rates, share of search, and content integrity.
• •Track and report on "Perfect Digital Store" scores to pinpoint SKU-level optimization opportunities, prioritizing PDP image refreshes and copy enhancements.
• •Translate digital shelf scoring insights into data-driven design recommendations and merchandising action plans that improve discoverability and add-to-cart conversion.
• •Lead total dComm digital shelf scorecard reporting every period and support monthly business reviews with cross-functional commercial partners.
• •Liaise with Global dComm team for best-in-class strategy and measuring content with focus on content completion and effectiveness scorecard.

What can you expect from Mars?

Work with over 130,000 diverse and talented Associates, all guided by the Five Principles (Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency, and Freedom) and united b