The Merchandise Planner is responsible for building, optimizing, and executing product assortment and inventory plans that align with company’s business goals. This role bridges product, demand planning, and sales, ensuring a data-driven approach to assortment selection, buy quantities, and product lifecycle management across retail, ecommerce, and distribution channels.
Key Responsibilities
Assortment Planning
- Develop and manage seasonal assortment plans by category, collection, and channel.
- Partner with Product Merchandisers to translate product concepts into buyable assortments aligned with brand and financial objectives.
- Evaluate SKU productivity, product mix, and price architecture to ensure balanced and profitable assortments.
- Work closely with Marketing and Product teams to align assortment with campaign launches, product storytelling, and hero products.
- Build seasonal and monthly sales and inventory forecasts by SKU/category.
- Ensure inventory investment supports sales targets and minimizes overstock or aged inventory.
- Partner with Demand Planner and Supply Planner to synchronize demand forecasts and supply execution.
- Conduct weekly/monthly business reviews on sell-through, weeks of supply, and inventory health by channel.
Channel & Collection Strategy
- Create differentiated assortments for retail, ecommerce, and distributors, balancing core, seasonal, and limited-edition collections.
- Support product launch sequencing across channels, ensuring timing and volume align with go-to-market priorities.
- Provide insights to optimize channel productivity and product lifecycle transitions (launch, sustain, markdown, exit).
Business Analysis & Insights
- Track product performance and propose actions (reorders, markdowns, SKU optimization).
- Analyze product mix (color, size, material, collection) to inform future assortment decisions.
- Partner with the Merchandise Financial Planner to align assortment performance with financial KPIs.
What You Need To Have
- Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Merchandising, Supply Chain, or related field.
- Minimum 3 years of experience in merchandise planning, assortment planning, or inventory management, ideally in retail, consumer goods, or lifestyle brand.
- Proficiency in Excel/Google Sheets is mandatory.
- Strong understanding of retail math (sales, margin, turn, OTB).
- Experience in omnichannel environments (ecommerce + retail) preferred.
- Analytical, detail-oriented, and commercially savvy where you turn data/insights into action.
- Passionate about consumer trends, product, and the intersection between design and business.
- Strong communicator who thrives in cross-functional environments (Product, Marketing, Sales, Operations).
- Agile and curious where you adapt quickly to fast-moving product cycles and category growth.