Retail Merchandising and Planning - Strategy Consultant

Retail Merchandising and Planning - Consultant

We Are

Accenture's Retail Merchandising and Planning practice helps the world's leading retailers reinvent how they buy, plan, allocate, and manage product across the value chain. We work at the intersection of merchandising strategy, planning process design, and AI-enabled decision making, helping clients across apparel, hardlines, grocery, and specialty retail modernize their operating models and improve performance in demand forecasting, assortment planning, and inventory productivity.

You Are

A retail merchandising and planning professional who pairs functional expertise with a strong aptitude for learning and a drive to deliver. You've built a foundation close to the buy - in category management, merchandise financial planning, assortment, allocation, replenishment, or demand/supply planning - and you understand how these functions connect end-to-end. Depth in every area isn't expected at this level; what matters is that you bring real functional knowledge, apply it to solve client problems, and build quickly on your base. You're comfortable executing analysis, contributing to client-ready deliverables, and engaging with client stakeholders day to day, and you're eager to grow into broader leadership as you take on more responsibility.

The Work

As a Consultant, you will execute and contribute to workstreams within larger transformation engagements for retail clients, working alongside client stakeholders and Accenture leadership to develop recommendations, drive delivery, and help realize results.

Project Execution

• Contribute to the delivery of a workstream within a broader transformation program, owning discrete tasks, key components of deliverables, and analyses end-to-end
• Synthesize disparate data sources into insights and clear, client-ready deliverables
• Work with clients to identify and interpret key project requirements
• Develop and nurture relationships with client stakeholders within your scope
• Support project planning and coordination to ensure effective, on-time delivery of client work
• Coordinate with subject matter experts within the firm to align on priorities and accomplish objectives
• Produce high-quality, timely work and exhibit integrity in decisions and firm relationships

Merchandising & Planning Transformation

• Support assessments of current-state merchandising, planning, and inventory management capabilities against industry-leading practices
• Contribute to future-state operating model design spanning category management, merchandise financial planning, assortment planning, allocation, replenishment, demand planning, and supply planning
• Support the development of capability strategies, transformation roadmaps, and value cases that quantify the impact of change
• Apply sub-industry nuance across apparel, hardlines, and/or grocery to help tailor recommendations to client-specific dynamics

AI & Technology Enablement

• Bring current knowledge of AI, analytics, and emerging planning technologies to help identify where they can solve merchandising and planning business problems
• Support clients in evaluating planning platforms and AI-enabled decision-making tools as part of broader transformation
• Contribute to the design and delivery of GenAI- and agentic-enabled planning capabilities where applicable to client roadmaps

Business Development & Practice Development

• Provide merchandising and planning insights and benchmarking
• Support the development and review of client-facing summaries and analyses
• Work with the team to identify and assess opportunities for value creation and performance improvement
• Create and curate deliverable content (POV slides, working session prep, case studies) to capture merchandising and planning knowledge and support internal knowledge share and business development
• Help aggregate and manage data and intellectual capital for ongoing benchmarking, and insight generation
• Collaborate closely with junior and senior Accenture team members