Merchandise Planner/Retail Planner/OTB Planner - Retail

Opportunity for Dubai

1. Merchandise Planner

Objective

The job holder will be responsible for merchandise planning process to achieve department /category sales, margin, stock holding and flow objectives under the guidance of Head Merchandise Planning

Responsibilities

Merchandise Financial, Strategic and Assortment Planning

- Maximise Sales and profitability for the department/category

- Support in determining high-level financial goals including pre-season financial plans, in-season projections, open-to-buy management and new store budgets

- Prepare and maintain department/category merchandise MIS analytics based on actual sales, sales forecasts, company order parameters, inventory checks, forthcoming events, replenishment needs etc

- Assist in the creation of merchandise plans for the category based on insights gained from merchandise analytics, customer preference, historical trends and future outlook projected by the buyer

- Assist in discussing, deciding and freezing the department/category merchandise strategic plans around the following factors

Financials

- Sales, Stock, OTB, Margins, Forward Cover etc

Store

- Subgroub level Sales, Order Quantity, Allocation, Replenishment etc

Assortment

- Style, Price, Brand, Supplier etc

- Communicate the merchandise strategic plan to buying team for necessary execution

- Ensure effective in season management across territories (stock balancing, markdown management, stock analysis, stock vs sales performance)

- Help review the merchandise plans on a periodic basis to ensure profit is maximized and maintained to reach target levels

- Ensure that the standards of Merchandise procedures and Methodologies are maintained and kept Uniform

Inventory Stock Optimization

- Ensure optimum category inventory levels are maintained at Concept/Territory keeping in mind store requirements as well as working capital constraints

- Ensure that no instances of category stock outs occur on account of any discrepancy on part of merchandise planning

- Ensure excess category inventory is not maintained at the warehouses or the stores and there is proper adherence to the concept/territory ageing policy

Category Promotions

- Provide inputs on the expected margins, possible price points and other parameters for promotions within the product category

- Help analyse the effectiveness of the promotions in achieving the targeted levels of sales and margins

- Help analyse the existing stock levels and liaise with the Buying/VM/Marketing team for timely roll out of promotional campaigns to maintain the territory / warehouse inventory holding norms as well to achieve targeted sales

In season Management

- Ensure performance is monitored against plan for the assigned category/department, regularly supported by exception reporting

- Ensure effective in season management of the assigned category/department through regular analysis and action planning across concept and territory, based on the performance around the following anchors

Sales vs. Stock

Inflows/OTB

Stock analysis

Stock balancing

Margin analysis

Skills

Ability to work under pressure

Excellent Excel Skills

Fluency in English experience for products

Recruitment Team