Americas - Associate Merchandise Planner

Clarks•Needham, MA

About The Position

The Associate Merchandise Planner will be accountable in driving profitable sales & margin for their department. They will also be responsible for assisting in the management of sales & inventory activities by maintaining bottoms up open-to-buy plans, assortment plans, monitoring sales & inventory, and providing stock productivity analysis. They will create and analyze forecasts across the channels and report into the Planning Manager. What you'll do: Work cross functionally with other departments within the organization in order to optimize buy plan, sku optimization, as well as time phased category plans. Work closely with Merchant/Product teams. Maintaining OTB flow for current buying season and an extended 18 month strategic open to buy plan for future product seasons. Assist with the in-season inventory activities such as forecasting a roll forward projection and adjusting based on the agreed top-down plan. Support Planning Manager with markdown and closeout process. Create and update inventory productivity analysis including stock aging, pareto, velocity, flow optimization, and seasonal mix. Review current position against the top-down plan; identify risks and opportunities for optimization. Provide analysis on an as needed basis including assortment analysis by distribution grade/cluster; productivity and profitability by category; markdown cadence optimization; stockouts and service levels, etc. Responsible for collaborating with the Merchant team to create buy targets by channel. Breaking the future plans to lower classification levels in order to improve forecast accuracy. Time-phasing category plans in order to improve cash flow and deliver products just in time to maximize sales. Support in the development of standard weekly and monthly reports and evaluating performance versus agreed upon KPIs.

Requirements

Experience retail merchandise planning, buying, demand and supply planning, footwear a plus.
Knowledge of different business operating models – Retail, Franchise, Outlet, Ecommerce, Wholesale.
Finance – Retail Merchandise Planning – Budgets, Forecasts, Sales, Margin, Margin %.
Supply Chain – Merchandise metrics and Supply Chain logistics.
Experience in key distribution channels – wholesale, retail, and digital.
Comprehensive understanding of overall business operations.
Ability to analyze trends and use that information to effectively plan and forecast.
Strong analytical and verbal skills.
Decision making skills.
Practical understanding of financial, range, space and demand planning processes.
Practical understanding of trading and marketing planning processes.
Strong computer skills including the following tools:
Data warehouse/data mart query and report development tools.
Advance Microsoft Excel.
Planning Software (MID, Arthur, Enterprise Planning, NSB/STS/MMS, I2, Retek, Evant, etc.
Organizational skills to coordinate feedback from a variety of sources.

Responsibilities

Work cross functionally with other departments within the organization in order to optimize buy plan, sku optimization, as well as time phased category plans.
Work closely with Merchant/Product teams.
Maintaining OTB flow for current buying season and an extended 18 month strategic open to buy plan for future product seasons.
Assist with the in-season inventory activities such as forecasting a roll forward projection and adjusting based on the agreed top-down plan.
Support Planning Manager with markdown and closeout process.
Create and update inventory productivity analysis including stock aging, pareto, velocity, flow optimization, and seasonal mix.
Review current position against the top-down plan; identify risks and opportunities for optimization.
Provide analysis on an as needed basis including assortment analysis by distribution grade/cluster; productivity and profitability by category; markdown cadence optimization; stockouts and service levels, etc.
Responsible for collaborating with the Merchant team to create buy targets by channel.
Breaking the future plans to lower classification levels in order to improve forecast accuracy.
Time-phasing category plans in order to improve cash flow and deliver products just in time to maximize sales.
Support in the development of standard weekly and monthly reports and evaluating performance versus agreed upon KPIs.