Planner, Merchandise Job Description

Planner, Merchandise Job Description

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Planner, merchandise provides pertinent feedback to the Allocations team to support the development of store volume / climate clusters and the implementation of allocation tables.

Planner, Merchandise Duties & Responsibilities

To write an effective planner, merchandise job description, begin by listing detailed duties, responsibilities and expectations. We have included planner, merchandise job description templates that you can modify and use.

Sample responsibilities for this position include:

Ability to influence business partners with logic, reason and facts
Supports Retail companies to ensure consistency between seasonal buy and global seasonal/carryover mix, function/color contributions
Developing, presenting and managing the OTB sales forecasts, inventory levels, business component sales forecast, bottoms up forecast
Develop supporting seasonal strategic business plans
Lead the budget process team that includes merchants, forecasting and retail planner
Provide fiscal control through analysis and management of markdowns and purchase orders
Work with merchandising and marketing to develop promotional strategies
Identify and issue Consolidation Reports on styles that need consolidating
Action any consolidations additionally requested by National Retail Manager
Timely delivery of weekly reports and ad hoc reports for General Manager and Trade Meetings

Planner, Merchandise Qualifications

Qualifications for a job description may include education, certification, and experience.

Licensing or Certifications for Planner, Merchandise

List any licenses or certifications required by the position: APICS

Education for Planner, Merchandise

Typically a job would require a certain level of education.

Employers hiring for the planner, merchandise job most commonly would prefer for their future employee to have a relevant degree such as Bachelor's and Collage Degree in Business, Finance, Merchandising, Education, Economics, MBA, Marketing, Management, Statistics, Business/Administration

Skills for Planner, Merchandise

Desired skills for planner, merchandise include:

Allocation of merchandise
Inventory management processes
Purchasing
Retail industry
Scheduling
Development of unit buy quantities
Monitoring of the business at the store level
Monitoring the business at the store level
Concept of "average store" and apply it to the development of unit buy quantities
Concept of "store attributes" and apply it to guiding the type of merchandise developed for stores

Desired experience for planner, merchandise includes:

Experience using and inventory tracking tool
Experience using an inventory planning tool
SWOT preparation and Option Plans
Participate in the Option/Range Planning Process
Experience working in a Merchandise Planning position
Must have 5-7 years of experience in retail merchandise planning

Planner, Merchandise Examples

1

Planner, Merchandise Job Description

Job Description Example
Our company is growing rapidly and is searching for experienced candidates for the position of planner, merchandise. To join our growing team, please review the list of responsibilities and qualifications.
Responsibilities for planner, merchandise
  • Review historical data to determine pattern for future forecasting
  • Manage the Merchandise Transfer process from start to finish for Retail and Direct, including RTV’s
  • Create pre-season Brand Budget Plans partnering with Inventory Directors, Merchants, and Vendors
  • Own newness/launch hindsight, sales projections and buys to support all merchandising and promo strategies, partnering with Merchandising team & Vendors
  • Create and maintain strategic financial plans tied to merchandising strategies
  • Responsible for planning sales, inventory, markdowns and margins at a department/ class and/or program level
  • Responsible for building pre-season class plans at the price type (regular and markdown) and weekly level
  • Analysis of business around risk and opportunities at division, class and/or program level
  • Communicate monthly Open-to-Buy forecasts & supporting action plans presentation of this data to Management and Cross Functional teams
  • Create forecasts that support Demand, Shipped Sales, Inventory and Margin plans
Qualifications for planner, merchandise
  • Astounding proficiency in MS Excel
  • Understanding of structure, uses & elements of traditional Open to Buy
  • Extremely flexible and adaptive to changing priorities
  • Comfortable with a certain amount of ambiguity
  • 3 - 5 years of experience in merchandise or demand planning in Luxury business
  • Master’s Degree in Finance, Economics, Supply Chain, or Business with a strong quantitative focus
2

Planner, Merchandise Job Description

Job Description Example
Our company is growing rapidly and is searching for experienced candidates for the position of planner, merchandise. Please review the list of responsibilities and qualifications. While this is our ideal list, we will consider candidates that do not necessarily have all of the qualifications, but have sufficient experience and talent.
Responsibilities for planner, merchandise
  • Responsible for the training and development of direct and indirect reports on all Merchandise Planning metrics
  • Helps guide the IA's to re-forecasts on a weekly basis to maximize KPI strategies that will ultimately increase our Turns and GMROI while minimizing our inventory investments
  • Responsible for ensuring replenishment styles in stock at all time
  • Works cross-functionally with Merchants and Allocators to develop pre-season buy plans and architecture (including receipt flow and styles/choices)
  • Actively participates in thorough weekly review of the business with Merchandise and Allocation teams to monitor the business and react to risks and opportunities
  • Manages and executes to promotional strategy
  • Develops and maintains effective relationships with cross-functional partners to ensure proper support and coordination of merchandise issues
  • Communicates department level objectives, strategies, and issues (as appropriate) to Manager along with supporting analysis and action plans to achieve them
  • Communicates and collaborates with vendors in order to align on sales and receipt forecasts to ensure vendors can support forecasted demand
  • Closely track the online status of each new flow and continues to insure on-time receipts and uploading
Qualifications for planner, merchandise
  • A risk taker - reinvents their vision each season to stay fresh with the market
  • Ability to present business strategies and action plans
  • The ability to make the transition from strategic (conceptual and planning) thinking to execution to achieve the tactical objectives
  • Possess an ability to understand financial measurements and how to impact them
  • Experienced in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Word, Lotus Notes, Outlook, or equivalent Email system
  • 2-4 years of experience in store planning or merchandising
3

Planner, Merchandise Job Description

Job Description Example
Our innovative and growing company is looking to fill the role of planner, merchandise. We appreciate you taking the time to review the list of qualifications and to apply for the position. If you don’t fill all of the qualifications, you may still be considered depending on your level of experience.
Responsibilities for planner, merchandise
  • Influence cross functional relationships to drive business solutions and synergies within functional areas
  • Create, manage and enhance cross channel processes
  • Analyze and assess the sales performance of assigned product categories
  • Partnering with the finance team to cross-reference financial plans company objectives
  • Create monthly financial plans at division and category level for fiscal time periods
  • Understanding of marketing calendar and impact to financial architecture
  • Update plans to react to business trends
  • Identifies and reacts to opportunities to increase sales, improve margin, optimize inventories, and decrease markdowns
  • Supports VP and Merchandise Product Directors/Merchandise Managers with data and analysis
  • Partners with Director of Planning, Buyers and Divisional Merchandise Managers to develop long-range seasonal targets
Qualifications for planner, merchandise
  • Analytical and numbers-oriented, ability to manage and organize large sets of data
  • Familiarity with merchandise management systems and retail planning software
  • Responsible for in-season scenario planning actionable recommendations to address business needs
  • Exceptionally organised, methodical and efficient.Confidence to deal with/present to colleagues at all levels of the business
  • Advanced skills with Microsoft Excel and Access
  • Excellent technical skills – MS Office (specifically Excel)
4

Planner, Merchandise Job Description

Job Description Example
Our innovative and growing company is looking for a planner, merchandise. To join our growing team, please review the list of responsibilities and qualifications.
Responsibilities for planner, merchandise
  • Partner with Buyer and Merchandise Planner to identify high volume key items for potential re-orders
  • Partner with allocation team to maximize store level inventory balance on all core programs
  • Partner with Buyer and Planner to create sales targets on promotional merchandise, while identifying risk to the overall department sales plan
  • Manage and review monthly assortment plans to ensure sku rationality
  • Create and manage sales, inventory, and profit targets for assigned cross category product attributes
  • Partner with IT team to create better and more efficient reporting based on the needs of the merchandising team
  • Run and analyze ad hoc reports in order to react to current business trends anticipate future business trends
  • Complete monthly forecast submissions for given categories (sales plan & buy plan)
  • Manages OTB template & monitors inventory on a weekly basis to manage turn targets
  • Provides input and builds tools to support long term merchandise planning
Qualifications for planner, merchandise
  • Proficient in Word, Excel, and Access with ability to quickly learn other software (Arthur, E3, Business Objects)
  • A University Degree in Finance, Economics, Supply Chain, or Business with a strong quantitative focus
  • Advanced knowledge and use of forecasting tools
  • Hands-on or entrepreneurial attitude
  • Focus on business metrics that lead to profitability (revenue, margin, returns, cancels, sell thru, aged inventory)
  • Provide support analytically by creating and upgrading all reporting and processes
5

Planner, Merchandise Job Description

Job Description Example
Our innovative and growing company is hiring for a planner, merchandise. Please review the list of responsibilities and qualifications. While this is our ideal list, we will consider candidates that do not necessarily have all of the qualifications, but have sufficient experience and talent.
Responsibilities for planner, merchandise
  • Partner with Merchant and Inventory teams to build monthly flow plan for sales and inventory, accommodating MFO product lifecycle alongside expected flush pipeline
  • Collaborate with Finance and Commercial teams to reconcile bottom-up merchandise plans and top down sales targets
  • Conduct quantitative analysis and insights (Gen/Cat/Fit/Sub-class) to optimize line profitability—monetize new opportunities and identify risks
  • Gather qualitative/quantitative feedback from key stakeholders (sales team/merchandising/marketing) in order to inform future buy decision
  • Develop item-level promotional and markdown strategies on a weekly basis
  • Hindsight in-season & post-season performance by category
  • Ensure Group Merchandiser is informed of any changes / movements to intake vs
  • Conduct analysis of slow and fast moving lines, providing commercial recommendations to the Group Merchandiser
  • Produce Arthur packs and attend monthly review meeting ensuring you are fully conversant with all receipts for Arthur
  • In conjunction with the Group Buying and Merchandising teams, prepare detailed sales and stock analysis for regular Range Reviews
Qualifications for planner, merchandise
  • To think “outside the box” to generate new ideas (and follow thru) to increase efficiency and profitability
  • Retail math expertise
  • Produce ad hoc reporting as needed by the business
  • Three to five years in Merchandise Planning, Inventory Control or Buying required
  • Must be detail oriented and possess strong organizational, analytical and communication skills
  • Knowledge of Excel and Micro-Strategy is a plus

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