Merchandise Planner (Fashion) at Aquent

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

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