Job Description
- Partner with the Planning leadership and Divisional Managers to develop seasonal merchandise plans that meet sales, margin, and turnover targets.
- Present seasonal buying strategies to leadership, align assortments, pricing, and buy quantities with company objectives.
- Collaborate with Marketing and Pricing teams to align promotional strategies before seasonal launches.
- Manage monthly financial plans, adjusting sales, margin, and inventory projections based on performance needs.
- Partner with Finance to contribute insights for long-range planning and growth strategies.
- Analyze and quantify the impact of strategic, promotional, and assortment changes.
- Work with Allocation teams to execute store receipts, buy targets, and program setups.
- Develop and manage item/location sales forecasts, incorporating promotional activity, pricing adjustments, assortment changes, and seasonal factors.
- Set and manage store and DC parameters, approving orders to maintain service levels and inventory productivity.
- Provide vendors with monthly receipt projections on core items up to 24 weeks in advance.
- Create and execute inventory optimization strategies to minimize stock-outs and overstock situations while maximizing cash flow.
- Partner with buying teams and vendors for quarterly and annual assortment reviews, providing analytics to support decision-making.
- Communicate assortment details, display requirements, and setup timing to store operations.
- Manage the “Scan Book,” ensuring timely updates to store teams.
- Utilize exception reporting to identify and address business risks and opportunities.
- Escalate vendor performance issues to buyers and management for resolution.
- Collaborate with logistics partners to improve communication, delivery accuracy, and freight efficiency.
- Respond to inquiries from District and Regional Managers regarding forecasts, assortments, deliveries, product damages, and inventory discrepancies.
- Group assortments based on sales volume, floor size, and storage capacity.
- Develop DC-to-store forecasts to support operational planning.
- Evaluate and execute closeout opportunities, including DSD closeouts, optimizing loads, assortments, and delivery schedules.
- Plan and coordinate grand opening assortments for new stores, managing setup orders and vendor follow-ups to ensure timely delivery.