Merchandise Planner (Home Org)

Merchandise Planner (Home Org) is responsible for the overall financial direction of a category or department(s) with the goal of meeting/exceeding sales, margin and turn targets.  Planners are primarily responsible for developing seasonal merchandise financial plans, developing, and managing the allocation strategy, and supporting the Buyer with a department(s) open to buy.  Planners also work with Buyers in assortment and buy planning by facilitating layering of assortments and validating the integrity of initial allocation volumes.  In-season, Planners provide in-depth analysis of product performance and make recommendations to maximize business opportunities.

Key Roles and Responsibilities

• Manage the financial success of a department by meeting sales, gross margin and inventory turn goals.

• Develop pre-season merchandise financial plans to the classification level that support department strategies

• Reconcile merchandise plans against top-side goals and assortment plans

• Analyze historical data and current trends to identify risks and opportunities by department and class.

• Provide analytical inputs to support the Buyer in merchandise strategy planning, assortment planning and buy planning processes 

• Collaborate with merchandising to develop and communicate a comprehensive strategy that aligns future financial and product opportunities by department and class.

• Recap and analyze actual sales results to plan, forecasts in-season sales and inventories on a weekly/monthly/quarterly basis

• Develop monthly forecasts of sales and inventory for all basic styles and develop strategies to meet department financial goals.

• Lead Open-to-Buy Process; present financial forecast and supporting action plans in monthly open-to-buy forecast meeting

• Communicate financial results, forecasts, and action plans to manager and buying team on a weekly basis.

• Provide pricing and promotional recommendations that align with department financial goals

• Present financial plans, forecasts, and strategies in key meetings

• Support a collaborative, innovative and results-oriented environment with peers and cross-functional team.

• Develop Key Item plans and provide analytics required for planning and managing key items in-season

• Oversee the development of allocations by store and replenishment analysis/forecasting

• Oversee style/SKU count analysis

• Build a high-functioning planning team by developing partnerships, leading, coaching and providing constructive feedback

• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with members of cross-functional team 

• Prioritize and set expectations around key deliverables with direct reports and buying team

• Oversee store clustering process and provide location recommendations regarding product placement and maximization of trend performance

• Partners with buyer on development of reinventions, visual initiatives, and collaborations

• Assist the buy process by performing planning functions within the assortment planning/item planning tool

• Manage and develop direct report

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required

• 4-7 years of retail buying, planning or related analytical experience

• 2-3 years of experience in merchandise or financial planning roles

• Demonstrate strong analytical and problem-solving skills

• Demonstrates leadership and decision-making skills

• Demonstrates strong listening, written and oral communication skills

• Able to develop and maintain strong working relationship with peers and cross-functional teams

• Flexible and adaptive to changing priorities

• Reacts to business trends in a timely and efficient manner

• Takes calculated risks to achieve results

• Able to organize and prioritize workload to meet deadline

• Provides clear direction, counseling and coaching to staff

• High level of proficiency with Microsoft Excel and strong aptitude to learn technical applications quickly