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Merchandise Planner
New York City, NY

OVERVIEW: As a Planner you will be responsible for creating and managing sales and inventory financial plans at a department(s), style and SKU level.  Planners are responsible for analyzing, identifying and communicating sales opportunities and providing risk-mitigating recommendations. The focus is on maximizing profitability while aligning with total company goals, divisional goals and customer expectations.   

RESPONSIBILITIES:

*Collaborate with Merchants and Allocators on preseason and in season plans to align on sales and inventory strategies. Provide team with diagnosis of the business and own suggested course of action. *Active role partnering with planning peers and management in creating, updating, enhancing tools and process that supports financial integrity and allows for flexibility and innovation. *Actively listen, engage and respond to business partners and leadership in response to opportunities and challenges.

PRESEASON

*Create preseason sales, margin and inventory plans by department, class, style and color. Analyze and report on previous quarter results; identify "missed sales" and growth drivers over prior year *Summarize the opportunity and risk of a product plan as it relates to trend and financial metrics: initial mark-up, average unit retail, average unit cost, net margin dollars/rate. *Recommend style count, cc count and flow of goods for optimal results. *Independently develop and present the financial strategy associated with growth and diminish categories in quarterly investment review meetings. Effectively communicate support for style level buys as it relates to current trend, historical findings or related categories.

IN SEASON

*Provide daily and weekly updates on business as it relates to last forecast, identifying trends, and highlighting selling that exceeds or falls short of expectation. *Initiate conversations with cross functional partners regarding potential risk or opportunities and suggested changes to course of action for both current and future quarters. *Prepare sales, margin and inventory forecast and lead team in monthly OTB forecast meetings for current year; provide sales trend opportunity for future quarters, validate stock-to-sales relationships, maximize receipt flow to improve turn, reconcile receipts and suggest pricing strategies to drive profitability. *Monitor basic style selling trends and partner with merchandising and allocation to select monthly order quantities. *Generate and manage style level weekly unit sales plans in season to inform total department sales expectation by week/month/quarter and identify styles contributing to a /- to forecast. *Propose markdown and promotional strategies to maximize profitability on the life of an item or category; provide pricing and margin dollar gain/loss scenarios. *Recommend and manage cross channel transfer proposals and communication.

QUALIFICATIONS:

*Bachelors degree required. *2 years of merchandise planning experience; a total of 4-6 years of related experience in allocation, merchandising, or financial planning. *Strong analytical, financial modeling, and problem solving skills. *Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills. *Proven ability to build strong cross-functional partnerships and influence others. *Ability to synthesize business performance into key highlights, root cause analysis and action plans. *Ability to manage multiple work streams/projects with tight timelines. *Strong technical aptitude, including advanced competency in Microsoft Excel and the ability to quickly master new applications and systems.

We are committed to affirmatively providing equal opportunity to all associates and qualified applicants without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, marital status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, legally protected physical or mental disability or any other basis protected under applicable law.






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