Merchandise Planner

Job Description

Merchandise Planner

Position Overview

The Merchandise Planner is responsible for development and execution of financial plans and forecasts at category, subcategory, product and SKUs that support merchandise strategies and initiatives. The Merchandise Planner is responsible for the bottoms up validation of the end-to-end business process from pre-season strategies all the way through to in-season OTB management.

Position Details

Work Environment

We value face-to-face interactions that foster our culture of learning, creativity, and teamwork. The role is based at our headquarters near Madison, WI. You will work in the office Monday through Thursday, with the option to work remotely from home on Fridays if you prefer.

What You’ll Do

• Collaborate in the development of brand, division and category level pre-season, item-level sales and margin plans that align with Duluth’s financial goals and open-to-buy targets
• Maintains monthly OTB financial plans at division, category and subcategory level by season, month and week. This includes the tops down and bottoms up reconciliation of brand and category to ensure brands and categories ladder up to total coporate financial targets
• Monitors and tracks changes to sales and OTB levels and reports on the risk / impact to merchandising strategies and key KPIs / provides solutions to get categories and brands back on track to hit key KPIs
• Strong financial acumen with ability to analyzes and identify selling trends, taking action to maximize selling potential and minimize risk to inventory, profitability and overstocks
• Ensure the team adheres to monthly forecast review cadence by reforecasting in season and aligning with merchant and inventory partners on sales, margin, markdowns, receipts, and inventory related actions
• Owns preparation and presentation for key business reporting meetings such as weekly sales meetings, early commit meetings and business reviews. This includes the ability to clearly articulate the why behind the numbers and key actions to hit seasonal KPIs
• Proactively seeks out subject matter experts to continue to learn and grow and takes action on feedback
• Acts as a champion of change management and process improvement through implements new tools, ideas, and ways of thinking to create team efficiencies
• Manages in-season product appearances based on inventory availability and needs – which includes managing products through end of life and driving a profitable markdown strategy and execution
• Analyze historical and current trends to identify risks or opportunities and recommend and drive strategies with cross-functional leaders to increase sales and achieve business and financial objectives
• Owns accurate data in the systems and provides reporting as needed
• Partners with merchandising and inventory on color and size mix % and uses historical selling analysis to help determine appropriate mix
• Ability to build strong relationships with internal and external partners and is seen as a trusted leader
• Embraces new systems and processes that ladder to corporate growth initiatives
• Help provide cross functional partners with ad hoc reports and business recommendations based on data driven findings and facts
• Ability to identify and develop internal and external talent
  
  

What We’re Looking For

• 4 Year Degree and/or minimum 5 years of inventory management and/or inventory planning/forecasting experience
• Equivalent work experience would be considered
• Experience in a leadership role, developing and executing strategy and managing people
• Planning and Forecasting system experience
• Reporting tools experience, as well as Microsoft Excel proficiency
• Outstanding problem solving and change management skills
• Leadership skills, ability to guide teams to actions
• Coaching and management skills, ability to develop direct reports
• Quantitative analytical skills, ability to form conclusions using numerical data
• Systems aptitude, knows how and when to use systems to make decisions
• Technical knowledge, understands forecasting definitions and formulas
• Sense of ownership, approaches company business as if it were their own
• Sense of urgency, proactive identification of opportunities and risks
• Global view of company and business, as well as strategic initiatives
• Project management skills, ability to balance forward looking and day to day
  

Compensation Range: $64,000 to $85,000/year