Sportcraft - Senior Merchandise Planner

Apg; New South Wales; On-site; AUD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Sportscraft is seeking an experienced Planning professional to maximise profitability through end-to-end merchandise management across store and digital channels. You will oversee open-to-buy, inventory flow, and KPI-driven forecasting, deputising for the Planning Manager when needed.

You will collaborate with international teams, drive stock analysis, and lead a small planning function to optimise sell-through and margin performance.

Qualifications

• 5+ years' experience in retail merchandise planning, demand forecasting or inventory management.
• Advanced Excel proficiency and experience with planning/BI tools such as Power BI, Tableau or Style Arcade.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted planning and strong KPI focus.

Responsibilities

• Establish budgets for sales, markdowns, purchases, stock levels and margins against KPI targets.
• Develop seasonal option plans and manage open-to-buy across channels.
• Own WSSI and forecasts for sales, stock, margins and purchases in season.
• Lead weekly trading meetings with analysis and recommendations to hit Sales, GP & Stock targets.
• Forecast future potential and provide SWOTs to guide buying and design decisions.
• Collaborate with VM, Retail Ops, Digital and Finance for stock planning and allocation across stores and online.

Skills

Merchandise planning

Forecasting

Inventory management

Excel advanced

BI tools

AI-assisted planning

Stakeholder management

People leadership

Tools

Power BI

Tableau

Style Arcade

Job description

About the Role

An exciting opportunity to join the Sportscraft team, working closely with the Planning Manager this role is responsible for maximising business profits through effective management of merchandise from conception to sale across store and digital channels, forecasting key business KPIs to deliver the company's financial targets. To effectively manage the open-to-buy and inventory flow across all channels, meeting agreed targets. Deputising for the Planning Manager when needed.

Key Responsibilities

Establish budgets for sales, markdowns, purchases, stock levels, stock turn, margin % and margin dollars against agreed KPI targets. Develop seasonal option plans and manage the category-level open-to-buy (OTB), including all promotional activity and weekly intake reconciliation using planning tools. Full WSSI ownership - Reviewing and recommending forward forecasts on sales, markdowns, stock, margin and purchases in season. Facilitate weekly trading meetings with analysis and recommendations to achieve Sales, GP & Stock targets. Provide analysis on core lines - identifying risks and opportunities, evaluating performance, and balancing historical and current data. Forecast future potential or recommend exit strategies for end-of-life lines, and provide in-season and post-seasonal SWOTs to guide design and buying direction. Maintain stock cover in line with signed-off KPIs, overseeing daily stock management - initial allocations, stock pushes, model levels, consolidations, markdowns and replenishment each week across all channels. Manage relationship with international manager, coordinating the stock select alongside team. Manage markdowns by reviewing aged stock, analysing weekly sales reports, and controlling seasonal markdown and clearance levels across stores and online. Improve sell-through rates through accurate quantification, allocation, size curve analysis and store size profiling. Set up divisional grading and store cluster strategies to maximise return on stock investment, reviewing in season to identify store risk or opportunity. Work closely with VM and Retail Ops on stock planning for existing and new stores, overseeing new store stock builds and ensuring opening requirements are met and communicated to stakeholders. Partner with the eCommerce/Digital team to plan inventory and allocation across online channels, ensuring a consistent view of stock and demand across store and digital. Continually assess inventory levels across stores and online channels, identifying issues and opportunities, and conduct store visits focused on underperformance and opportunity. Maintain a customer-focused team, delivering accurate work to agreed timelines, and build effective relationships with key stakeholders across Design, Retail Ops, Digital/eCommerce, Logistics and Finance. Develop direct report assistant planner through coaching, mentoring and regular feedback. Able to deputise for the Planning Manager, leading meetings and maintaining 'Business As Usual' when they are absent. Act as project contributor for key planning projects, including evaluating and rolling out new planning, forecasting or AI-enabled analytics tools, and supporting data integration across systems to reduce manual reconciliation. Maintain a strong knowledge of merchandise processes and systems, demonstrating commercial awareness of the digital and omnichannel trends, ensuring plans remain aligned with trading conditions. Identify and lead continuous improvement initiatives that are time-bound and measurable.

Skills & Experience

5+ years' experience in retail merchandise planning, demand forecasting or inventory management, ideally including exposure to omnichannel or eCommerce planning. Advanced proficiency in Excel and experience with planning/BI tools (e.g. Power BI, Tableau, Style Arcade). Familiarity with, or willingness to adopt, AI-assisted planning. Strong understanding of open-to-buy, stock turn, sell-through, margin and other core retail KPIs. Strong analytical, communication and stakeholder management skills. Proven people leadership and coaching experience.