eCommerce, digital merchandising, product data, catalog operations

JOSHUA A. WATERS

eCommerce & Merchandising Executive

Boca Raton, FL 603-***-**** *.*.******@*******.*** linkedin.com/in/joshuawaters

SUMMARY

eCommerce and merchandising executive with 30 years scaling multi-billion-dollar digital storefronts: Chewy from $200M to $2B+, Dell's $2B enterprise storage portfolio, 100,000+ SKUs at Office Depot, and Material Bank's taxonomy, Product Information Management (PIM), and B2C launch built from the ground up. Owns the full SKU lifecycle: taxonomy and information architecture, PIM and Digital Asset Management (DAM) implementation, product detail page (PDP) and category strategy, site search, and the 15+ person teams behind them. Hands-on operator who has implemented Magento, Shopify, Commercetools, Riversand, Inriver, Agility, Endeca, Algolia, and SearchSpring. Available for fractional, interim, and project engagements.

CORE COMPETENCIES

Site Merchandising & Category Strategy Product Taxonomy & Information Architecture PIM/DAM Implementation & Governance Site Search & Discovery Optimization SKU Lifecycle Management Data Governance & Quality Catalog Automation & ETL AI/ML for Merchandising Multi-Language / Multi-Region Rollout Team Building & Cross-Functional Leadership

TECHNICAL PLATFORMS

eCommerce: Magento, Shopify Plus, Commercetools, ATG

PIM / DAM: Riversand, Inriver, Agility, Enterworks, Bynder, Celum, WebDAM

Site Search: Algolia, SearchSpring, Endeca, Solr

CMS & Analytics: Ektron/Episerver, Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), Google Analytics, Hotjar

Other: Pentaho (ETL), HTML/CSS, Tailwind CSS, Alpine.js, Computer Vision model training, Agentic AI, Claude

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Director, Merchandising & Data Operations

Material Bank, Boca Raton, FL

Jun 2022 to Apr 2026

Owned merchandising, taxonomy, PDP operations, and product data for B2B and B2C properties across 5 languages and two commerce platforms (Magento, Commercetools) at the largest architecture and design (A&D) materials marketplace.

- Lifted conversion double digits across multiple categories by rolling out a PDP template strategy mapped to how customers search and evaluate products.

- Drove 12% month-over-month add-to-cart growth in Tile and 28% in Paint within two months of launching discovery pages in five languages.

- Built Material Bank's first end-to-end product taxonomy, unlocking automated hierarchy placement, faceted search, and downstream merchandising logic.

- Stood up DesignShop.com on Commercetools from scratch, defining the attribute model, PIM workflows, and merchandising rules.

- Partnered with AI Engineering to train and deploy a computer vision model that auto-tags patterns, textures, and materials for attribution and discovery.

- Unblocked European rollout by leveraging native Magento CMS to ship reusable multi-language category templates after a stalled Product/Engineering effort.

- Served as internal subject-matter expert on textiles, tile, flooring, paint, and finishes for the A&D design community.

Director, Catalog

GameStop, Grapevine, TX

Sep 2021 to Apr 2022

- Architected a simplified, scalable PIM-to-eCommerce data model that replaced fragmented content workflows.

- Replaced email-based production with a ticketed system, improving accuracy, turnaround, and cross-functional visibility.

- Refined catalog data warehouse reporting to power SKU defect tracking and merchandising queue prioritization.

Director, Product Catalog

Material Bank, Boca Raton, FL

Nov 2019 to Sep 2021

- Launched the company's first B2C Shopify site end-to-end: content, imagery, attribution, collections, and onsite merchandising tools.

- Deployed enterprise PIM and DAM platforms that became the foundation for every downstream merchandising capability.

- Automated SKU creation, validation, and setup, removing bottlenecks and accelerating speed-to-market for new product introductions.

Operations & Technology Manager

Stanley Black & Decker, Miramar, FL

Jun 2019 to Nov 2019

- Deployed a global DAM across LATAM, Asia, and Europe, standardizing asset workflows and cutting regional time-to-market.

- Consulted on company-wide product taxonomy, applying best practices and governance frameworks.

Associate Director, Catalog Operations

Chewy.com, Dania Beach, FL

Sep 2015 to Jun 2019

Owned site search, navigation, product copy and attribution, digital assets, merchandising associations, and the PIM/DAM/search roadmap during Chewy's growth from $200M to $2B+ (acquired by PetSmart for $3.35B in 2017).

- Founded and scaled a 15+ person product content and catalog team with career paths, training programs, and a high-performance culture.

- Tripled product attributes and optimized thousands of SKUs by splitting a flat catalog into a merchant master taxonomy (finance) and a discoverable selling taxonomy (customers), lifting SEO and conversion.

- Built Chewy's pet pharmacy catalog from the ground up: product pages, attribution, merchandising, and discoverability for a regulated, compliance-sensitive category.

- Overhauled site search: improved relevance, expanded synonyms, built attributes for high-intent queries, and instituted regression testing and query-level analytics.

- Defined cross-sell and merchandising association strategy that drove higher attach rates and average order value (AOV).

- Launched DAM with QA gating to block low-quality imagery and authored copy and image standards adopted across the storefront.

Sr. Manager, Content & Web Merchandising

Office Depot, Boca Raton, FL

Sep 2012 to Sep 2015

Owned product content and online customer experience for technology categories across B2B and B2C channels.

- Delivered $1.7M year-over-year revenue lift on ink and toner finders, with AOV $40 above site average, by onboarding a custom device-compatibility feed across web, mobile, and stores.

- Scaled a 100,000+ SKU catalog by automating third-party vendor content ingestion, enabling 400%+ year-over-year SKU growth across B2C, B2B, Amazon, and eBay feeds.

- Executed OfficeMax post-acquisition continuity, keeping three legacy sites operating through customer and catalog migration to the Office Depot platform.

eBusiness Advisor

Dell Technologies, Round Rock, TX / Nashua, NH

Oct 2008 to Sep 2012

- Owned online content for a $2B+ enterprise storage portfolio, including launches, campaigns, and microsites across Public and Large Enterprise business units.

- Overhauled the 30-page Enterprise Storage Solutions site in one month with new content, SEO, and lead generation, taking it to #1 in visits and page rank across Dell's 22 enterprise solution sites.

- Launched a 10+ country awareness campaign, coordinating translations, assets, and lead generation with regional marketing teams.

Earlier Career

Ektron/Episerver, Hello Direct, The Home Depot, Connection

1997 to 2008

Web Campaign & Content Manager at Ektron/Episerver (A/B-tested lead generation, 7 to 9M emails per month). Web Content Manager at Hello Direct on ATG (grew top-selling SKUs through site-search query analysis, built navigation and product configuration data). Systems Coordinator and Art Director at The Home Depot (6.1M-run catalog program across 11 markets). Began as a graphic designer at Connection (PC Connection) and Papergraphics.

EDUCATION

M.A., Integrated Marketing Communications, Emerson College, Boston, MA (3.9 GPA)

B.A., Commercial Art & Graphic Design (Minor: Biology), Notre Dame College, Manchester, NH

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