Our Story So Far

Founded in 1862, FAO Schwarz is one of the oldest and most iconic toy retailers in the world. Frederick August Otto Schwarz dreamed of a marvelous, bountiful emporium full of extraordinary, one-of-a-kind toys from all over the world. His dream became a reality, and as one of America's oldest brands, we have provided this wonder to families for more than 160 years.

The Job

The Demonstration Lead will coach our team of Demonstration Associates to perform live, interactive toy demonstrations for numerous products across key areas of the store. This role will be responsible for bringing our toys to life through demonstration, as well as delivering the FAO Schwarz brand to each guest as they visit the store, ensuring they receive care, attention, and excitement. This role will be instrumental in driving a sales culture that helps us meet or exceed our daily sales and KPI goals.

The Demonstration Lead will also perform daily checks to ensure all demonstrations are performing to our operational standards, and will collaborate with store leadership to escalate concerns and improvements as needed. This role will assist with maintaining stock levels and merchandising standards, and ensure demo equipment & technology are maintained throughout the day to seamlessly fulfill demonstration sales.

This is a full-time, non-exempt position on our store leadership team with a requirement for open availability across all days and shift times. 

Reporting to: Sales & Experience Manager 

What You’ll Do

Guest:

§  Lead by example, using the FAO Schwarz selling vision to effectively engage and delight each guest, creating authentic connections, at times handling multiple guests simultaneously. 

§  Be able to adapt your style to engage both children and adults as they visit us in the store.

§  Demonstrate great selling techniques and coach your team to meet or exceed sales goals and KPIs.

§  Be the expert in your demonstration stations and train the team to ensure all information provided to the guest is accurate.

§  Coach your team to demonstrate in front of a large audience or one-on-one with the purpose of driving sales.

§  Complete regular observations of each demonstration, providing objective feedback to team members to enhance the guest experience and selling skills. 

§  Show an understanding of effective zoning and make adjustments to the daily plan as needed. 

§  Embody a “guest before task” mentality and make decisions focused on maximizing the guest experience.

§  Escalate guest feedback to the appropriate parties and take action to address opportunities to improve in a positive and constructive way.

Team:

§  Make recommendations to evolve and innovate the toy demonstrations and overall store experience that will excite our guests.

§  Share expertise with colleagues to help elevate the experience for our guests.

§  Check in with your team across all demonstrations, taking time to understand how to adapt your leadership style to suit a diverse range of people.

§  Assist in monitoring uniform stock levels and escalate any uniform issues as needed.

§  Work shoulder-to-shoulder with the team to build connections, understand their needs, and support their development goals and individual growth.

§  Assist in sharing key communications across the experience and demonstration teams.

§  Build a culture of accountability within the team, communicating clear expectations and managing individual performance when expectations are not met.

§  Assist in delivering specific training needs across the team, including product knowledge, selling, demonstration techniques, and any other areas as needed across the store.  

§  Escalate employee concerns and feedback to senior leadership. 

Store:

§  Be able to flex outside assigned demonstrations as needed to support the wider store.

§  Maintain good understanding of store layout and local area to be able to effectively and accurately handle guest queries.

§  Be an active presence on the sales floor to lead by example and ensure our standards are being met consistently.

§  Have an understanding of sales goals and be able to speak to factors affecting the performance of each demonstration.

§  Assist in monitoring stock levels across the demonstrations, identifying opportunities to prevent out of stock items and check that store on-hands match predicted sales plans.

§  Build relationships with our third-party vendors and serve as a demonstration liaison to support their needs.

§  Have knowledge of the operations of the store at large and support where needed.

§  Support the development of new demonstrations in the store. 

What You Have

§  2+ years experience in a leadership role within a fast-paced premium retail or performance-based environment, with experience driving sales and leading sales teams.

§  A dynamic and engaging personality with the ability to deliver an exciting theatrical performance in front of crowds or one-on-one with guests, and coach your team to do the same.

§  The ability to impact sales through effective toy demonstration, leading by example, and coaching.

§  A love of toys and the FAO brand  

§  Excellent communication, collaboration, and interpersonal ability

§  Open and flexible availability in line with a Flagship Retail environment across days, evenings, weekends, and holidays.

§  Strong business acumen with the ability to use commercial reporting to drive decision-making. 

§Capable of lifting up to 25 pounds, and bending, twisting, and standing for long periods of time. 

This job description should not be construed to contain every function/responsibility that may be required to be performed by this role. Employees are required to perform other related functions as assigned.  

FAO Schwarz is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local fair employment practices laws.    

FAO Schwarz strictly prohibits and does not tolerate discrimination against employees, applicants, interns, or any other covered persons, on the basis of age, race, color, religion, creed, national origin including ancestry, ethnicity, sex including pregnancy, gender identity, and transgender status, gender, physical or mental disability, including gender dysphoria and similar gender-related conditions, alienage or citizenship status, military status, including past, current, or prospective service in the uniformed services, genetic information, predisposing genetic characteristics, marital status, partnership status, domestic violence victim status, familial status, actual or perceived sexual orientation, unemployment status, caregiver status, credit history, salary history, or any other category protected by applicable federal, state and local laws, with respect to hiring, promotion, discipline, firing, compensation, benefits, or other terms, conditions or privileges of employment.    

If you need a reasonable accommodation in the application or hiring process, or during the course of your employment, please contact the Director of Human Resources at HR@fao.com.   

Apply online at faoschwarz.com/pages/careers; Indeed.com; or GetHired.com  

FAO Schwarz is an EEO employer - M/F/Vets/Disabled