Role: Merchandise Planner (Fashion)

Location: Remote (Company HQ is PST. Employees in PST and MT preferred)

Salary: $80K – $90K

Overview

The Merchandise Planner is responsible for managing the pre-season and in-season sales and inventory plans for a brand. The Merchandise Planner collaborates closely with their Buying partners to develop brand merchandising strategies and open-to-buy plans, allowing for smart buying decisions in the delivery of fast fashion.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities 

• Responsible to drive the financial success by managing sales, gross margin, and inventory turn goals to meet or exceed financial objectives 

• Analyze records of past and present financial data and trends to project future KPI performance, sales and merchandise margins at the monthly, weekly and daily level

• Drive pre-season and in-season strategies by identifying company level opportunities

• Develop promo and pricing strategies that support brand strategies and drive sales and margin performance to meet financial goals 

• Responsible for open-to-buy activities for an entire brand; Manage the reconciliation of bottoms-up plans and tops-down Company Planning forecasts and budget; Present OTB forecasts to the Head of Planning.

• Ensure timely reaction to business trend in-season with appropriate shifts in sales and inventory forecasts and develop action plans to maximize opportunities and mitigate risk 

• Proactively identify business opportunities and communicate cross-functionally to ensure effective execution of plans and course correction when necessary 

• Create and maintain ad hoc reporting tools.

• Develop processes to ensure consistency in use of best practices and deliveries within deadlines 

• Take active role in brand initiatives in optimizing systems and tools to maximize efficiency

• Lead discussions in key milestone meetings including weekly business update, monthly OTBs, and quarterly hindsight meetings 

• Collaborate closely with and build trust among cross functional partners in Merchandising, Finance, Marketing, Site Merchandising to build best practices and execute against brand strategies 

Skills & Qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience 

• 4+ years of retail merchandise planning or inventory management experience 

• Demonstrated success at building business partnerships and ability to influence and effectively negotiate with cross functional teams 

• Ability to evaluate business trends and draw actionable conclusions to maximize business opportunities; anticipate risks and develop plans and processes to reduce exposure

• Ability to set priorities and clear objectives that ensure team goals and objectives are met or exceeded 

• Demonstrated success in identifying and communicating opportunities in process improvement

• Ability to organize and present complex ideas 

• Ability to move analysis into action; can leverage learnings to build brand plans and strategies 

• Creative approach to problem solving with a focus on driving sales; demonstrated ability to track performance and measure results 

• Possess exceptional organizational and time management skills 

• Passion for fast fashion retail; possess the agility, attention to detail and sense of urgency required to work in a fast-paced and changing environment 

• Broad based business acumen

• Proficient in retail math

• Advanced Excel skills and ability to work with large sets of data and produce ad hoc reports and tools