Americas - Associate Merchandise Planner

ASSOCIATE MERCHANDISE PLANNER

ASSOCIATE MERCHANDISE PLANNER

The Associate Merchandise Planner will be accountable in driving profitable sales & margin for their department. They will also be responsible for assisting in the management of sales & inventory activities by maintaining bottoms up open-to-buy plans, assortment plans, monitoring sales & inventory, and providing stock productivity analysis. They will create and analyze forecasts across the channels and report into the Planning Manager.

What you'll do:

• Work cross functionally with other departments within the organization in order to optimize buy plan, sku optimization, as well as time phased category plans. Work closely with Merchant/Product teams.
• Maintaining OTB flow for current buying season and an extended 18 month strategic open to buy plan for future product seasons.
• Assist with the in-season inventory activities such as forecasting a roll forward projection and adjusting based on the agreed top-down plan. Support Planning Manager with markdown and closeout process.
• Create and update inventory productivity analysis including stock aging, pareto, velocity, flow optimization, and seasonal mix.
• Review current position against the top-down plan; identify risks and opportunities for optimization.
• Provide analysis on an as needed basis including assortment analysis by distribution grade/cluster; productivity and profitability by category; markdown cadence optimization; stockouts and service levels, etc.
• Responsible for collaborating with the Merchant team to create buy targets by channel. Breaking the future plans to lower classification levels in order to improve forecast accuracy. Time-phasing category plans in order to improve cash flow and deliver products just in time to maximize sales.
• Support in the development of standard weekly and monthly reports and evaluating performance versus agreed upon KPIs.

What You'll Bring:

• Experience retail merchandise planning, buying, demand and supply planning, footwear a plus.
• Knowledge of different business operating models – Retail, Franchise, Outlet, Ecommerce, Wholesale.
• Finance – Retail Merchandise Planning – Budgets, Forecasts, Sales, Margin, Margin %.
• Supply Chain – Merchandise metrics and Supply Chain logistics.
• Experience in key distribution channels – wholesale, retail, and digital.
• Comprehensive understanding of overall business operations.
• Ability to analyze trends and use that information to effectively plan and forecast.
• Strong analytical and verbal skills.
• Decision making skills.
• Practical understanding of financial, range, space and demand planning processes.
• Practical understanding of trading and marketing planning processes.
• Strong computer skills including the following tools:
• Data warehouse/data mart query and report development tools.
• Advanced Excel skills and experience using SAP, Business Objects, and Power BI to analyze data, create reports, and support business decisions.
• Organizational skills to coordinate feedback from a variety of sources.
• Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to clearly share insights and recommendations with team members and stakeholders.

Minimum salary: 60,000
Maximum salary: 70,000