Planner
Job Description
The Planner is responsible for maintaining in-season Sales, Margin, Receipt, Inventory and Turnover forecasts that reconcile to financial targets at a class level. The position brings analytical support and financial focus to help make decisions and develop strategies that will deliver and maximize Sales, Margin, Turnover and Inventory Management Return on Investment goals.Responsibilities and Duties
- Plan and manage the development of department merchandise financial plans that align with the company strategies.
- Reconcile top-down and bottoms-up class plans to department plans and forecasts
- Develop pre-season plans and recommend purchase/investment quantities and develop accurate receipt flow forecasts
- Manage monthly department level open-to-buy activities
- Establish and maintain accurate demand forecasts and execute managing / anticipating product changes, product launches, etc.
- Manage inventory plans from investment through allocation execution, including ongoing evaluation and updates.
- Actively participate in assortment development and review, providing data and analysis to support decision-making.
- Collaborate on best strategies to address product liabilities and develop action plans to liquidate in a timely and profitable manner.
- Executes the end to end management of inventory
- Effectively prioritize multiple workflows and projects; to be flexible and work under tight deadlines.
- Identify and leverage best practices and systems usage in order to work efficiently and effectively
- Collaborate with Creative and Finance to manage inventory, optimize sales, and margin through in season forecast and weekly seasonality glide path.
- Conduct regular business discussions & forecast meetings with the team on business and provide in-season and future season analytics that are necessary to improve the productivity of inventory, improve margin and drive sales
- Identify business opportunities and mitigate inventory risk through preparation of What-If Scenario Analysis (WISA). Provide trend analysis that speaks to the assortment criteria such as pricing, commodity, sizing, brand, store to include recommendation in-season as well as the future buys.
- Prepare and present post mortems re: Year over Year comparison as it pertains to inventory management, or commodity and other categorical selling that will provide insight to improve future buy assortment, may include silhouettes, commodity, pricing strategy, etc.
- Takes the opportunity to champion assigned projects
Qualifications and Skills
- Post-secondary degree in a related field or equivalent experience
- Requires minimum of 5 years’ retail merchandise planning experience. Minimum of 3 years’ experience involving sales and inventory planning, sales forecasting, and OTB
- Excellent financial acumen, strong analytical skills
- Demonstrated leadership and influencing skills with the ability to get things done
- Excellent interpersonal skills; a team player who is able to act as both a leader and an individual contributor as required
- Confident and effective communication (written & verbal) and interpersonal skills
- Is adaptable and comfortable with ambiguity and change
- Highly service-oriented with exceptional organizational and follow up skills
- Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook)
Job Types: Full-time