Associate Merchandise Planner

About the role

The Associate Merchandise Planner is responsible for pre- and in-season planning of sales and inventory. This includes planning inventory to hit target in-stock levels while minimizing overstocks, tracking & reporting results to management and working closely with cross-functional teams to maximize the business.

Responsibilities

• Take a leading role in managing inventory and work toward creating a collaborative, innovative and results-oriented environment with cross-functional teams.
• Balance workload priorities across in-season and pre-season planning deliverables to ensure successful execution of inventory management (including buy planning, pre-season forecasting and bi-weekly re-forecasting).
• Reconcile top-down & bottoms-up department plans to division plans and forecasts.
• Analyze pre-season plan and merchandising strategies for significant changes against last year.
• Conduct weekly sales analysis and recommend products that need to be taken to markdown.
• Create category level quarterly hindsight reports to drive strategic assortment decisions for future quarters and in-season management.
• Own and drive the OTB actualization process monthly.
• Identify and communicate tool and process improvement opportunities to the Manager of Merchandise Planning.
• Provide support to leadership on special projects as needed.
• Conduct ad-hoc analysis and reporting as needed.

Requirements

• 2+ years of retail apparel planning, allocation, or analytical experience.
• Strong Microsoft Excel skills.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to understand financial metrics and reporting.
• Detail oriented.
• Ability to problem solve and make effective decisions.
• Cultivate strong working relationships across multiple cross-functional partners to ensure business success.
• Demonstrate an ability to set objectives and goals and organize work appropriately to meet and exceed his/her goals.
• Anticipate risks and identify contingency plans and processes to prevent disruptions when risks occur.
• Demonstrate strong listening, written and oral communication skills.

Qualifications

Nice to Have - Bonus Points!

• Bachelor’s degree required (in Business or Finance preferred).