GENERAL SUMMARY
Within the Planning and Allocation team of The North Face, this role is responsible for part of the product portfolio, working with the Buying, Allocation, Merchandising, Marketing and Visual Merchandising teams to translate the buyer’s vision into profitable results.
Creates the seasonal collections to achieve sales and profit targets across both Retail and E-commerce channels using the most current trends in the marketplace combined with evaluations of the business performance and company direction for their area of responsibility.
The Merchandise Planner ensures that the nature, quality and timeliness of product is consumer focused and supports the Brand strategy.
KPI’s to be monitored will be Sales, Initial Margin, Gross Margin, Maintained Margin, Product Quality, Sell-through%, Inventory Turns, GMROI, Markdown, OTB Variance.
PRIMARY ACCOUNTABILITIES
- Create, review and present class plans seasonally. These plans should be developed using most current trends in the marketplace and existing evaluations of business and direction of company
- Analyse sales, stock and profitability performance by item, class, division, Supplier, and attribute groupings and use this knowledge and trend direction to provide recommendations to maximise opportunities and limit liabilities
- Develop and oversee a cohesive markdown and promotional strategy.
- Develop profitable exit strategies for discontinued and dead stock
- Provide critical analytical support to the buying team with regard to Supplier gross margin and brand development
- Develop strong partnerships with buying organisation to understand the vision and direction
- Establish an understanding of consumers and buying trends. Formulate guidelines for consumer centric opportunities
- Monitor and evaluate the Open-to-Buy and Open-to-Ship on a regular basis Provide timely and accurate re-projections based upon current trends to effectively manage inventory
- Review and make recommendations to support purchases. Provide guidelines for current on order and future purchases
- All purchases are to be approved through the planner role
- Facilitates Weekly OTB Team Meeting with Buying, Planning and Allocation and Monthly OTB/Assortment Plan Review Meetings with Executive leadership
- Understands the similarities and differences between the retail and outlet consumer
- Serves as a conduit between retail buying, product department and management
- Manages by exception
- Provides financial control and communication of performance
- Helps develop assortment plan by setting volume targets by store cluster
- Maintains floor set credibility
QUALIFICATIONS
The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skills, and /or abilities required for the individual to be successful in this position.
- Education: Bachelor degree in statistic-economics or related fields
- Experience: 2+ years experience in retail planning or related fields
- Language skills: fluent in English
COMPETENCIES
- Strong retail math acumen, including elements of mark up, margin planning, open to buy, inventory productivity measures (GMROI, Rotation)
- Strong computer skills: Excel, Merchandise and Financial Planning and Allocating software a plus
- Strong analytical, communication and negotiation skills, attention to detail
Please don't forget to attach your CV in English. Applications submitted in any other language will be deemed incomplete and will be unsuccessful.