Merchandise Planner

Responsible for the successful development, execution and communication of stores and e-commerce financial plans for assigned areas of business. Responsible to project open to buy sales, markdowns and inventory at the department and class level. Identify risks and opportunities and communicate recommendations to merchant partners as well as management. Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with the allocation and merchant teams. Provide support to Senior Planner, Allocation and merchant team.

• Maintain weekly open to buy for assigned area of business to identify risks and opportunities by class
• Project sales, markdowns and inventory
• Manage receipt flow
• Present open to buy to management monthly
• Develop markdown criteria
• Project e-commerce sales and markdowns for the division
• Analyze sales for risks and opportunities
• Provide merchant team with buy recommendations
• Evaluate e-commerce performance by class and make recommendations to the merchant team
• Quarterly analysis and hindsight
• Provide quantitative analysis to teams for hindsight and strategy meetings
• Analyze size selling for stores and e-commerce & provide updated recommendations as needed
• Responsible for the end to end development of pre-season stores and e-commerce financial plans
• Create month to month plans for stores and e-commerce at the class level
• Collaborate with merchant partners to make recommendations based upon quarterly analysis; including localization, receipt flow and exit strategies for seasonal product
• Present financial plans and high level strategies to management in quarterly meetings
• Manage the forecasting and recommendations for replenishment items
• Develop sales and inventory plans for key volume drivers and make recommendations to the merchant team
• Partner with allocation team to set up monthly Assortment Tools for merchant team
• Review and approve store clustering, style counts and average receipt units per store
• Work with Director of Planning & Allocation and Senior Planner on special projects and analyses
• Produce assigned division reports on a weekly/monthly basis, as well as departmental ad hoc reports
• Develop and maintain relationships with cross functional teams

Bachelor degree required. Fashion Retailing or Business degree a plus

2+ years experience in Merchandise Planning and Allocation. Previous retail planning experience required

• Strong verbal, written, communication and mathematical skills
• Strong organizational and time management skills
• Strong detail orientation and problem solving ability
• Proficient at Excel, Word and JDA Enterprise Planning a plus