Merchandise Planner

Walgreens; Deerfield (IL); On-site; USD 65,000 - 114,000; Full time

Job summary

Walgreens Merchandise Planner is responsible for leading the development and ongoing management of the annual and weekly financial plan, creating the business forecast, and evaluating potential pricing decisions and promotional plans.

Working in a cross functional matrix organization, you will ensure the team delivers budgeted P&L results through data-driven recommendations and a disciplined demand plan.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree plus 2+ years in retail, merchandising, planning, demand planning, inventory management, analytics or replenishment, or HS Diploma with 4+ years in two of the listed areas.
• Experience establishing relationships with individuals at all levels, including executives.
• Strong analytical, problem solving, communication and presentation skills.
• Experience delivering presentations to varied audiences.
• Excel proficiency including formulas, borders, column width, charts, text wrap, sorting, headers/footers, and print scaling.
• Word proficiency including headers, page breaks, page numbers, and tables.
• PowerPoint proficiency including themes, spacing, layouts, images, transitions, and chart formatting.
• Willing to travel up to 10% for business purposes (in-state and out-of-state).

Responsibilities

• Develops category/department financial plans to achieve sales and profit goals.
• Partners with Retail Products and cross-functional teams to drive key initiatives and P&L results.
• Conceives complex analytics to provide insights for proactive issue resolution.
• Provides post-mortem analysis to identify trends and recommendations.
• Identifies opportunities to improve performance while controlling inventory via data and demand planning.
• Performs annual financial planning and weekly forecasting; runs reports to drive performance.
• Develops approaches to support broad-reaching initiatives and sets guidelines.

Skills

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Presentation skills

Problem solving

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s Degree

High School Diploma

Tools

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Word

Microsoft PowerPoint

Job description

Job Summary

The Merchandise Planner works in collaboration with the Category Management Team to deliver on the business strategy by leading the development and ongoing management of the annual and weekly financial plan, creating the business forecast, and evaluating potential pricing decisions and promotional plans. Manages ongoing financial plans through data-driven recommendations and creation of the demand plan. Works highly collaboratively within a matrix organization to ensure the cross functional team is delivering budgeted P&L results.

Job Responsibilities

• Develops category and/or departmental financial plans to achieve sales and profit goals. Recommends actions based on historical performance and forecasts comparing various scenarios.
• Partners with various areas within Retail Products and cross functional project teams to drive key initiatives that impact the business and deliver end to end P&L results.
• Conceptualizes highly complex analytics to provide insights for proactive issue resolution and evaluations.
• Provides post mortem analysis of merchant category to identify trends and recommendations to maximize results.
• Identifies item level opportunities to drive performance while controlling inventory levels by leveraging data and insights. Analyzes sales trends, item level data, pricing and promotional plans, markdowns and budgets to build a demand plan.
• Performs annual financial planning and conducts weekly forecasting. Executes reports to drive performance and alignment across category team and cross functional partners.
• Develops approaches to drive the development of broad reaching initiatives.
• Establishes guidelines, best practices and standards.

About Walgreens

Founded in 1901, Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) has a storied heritage of caring for communities for generations, and proudly serves nearly 9 million customers and patients each day across its approximately 8,500 stores throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and leading omni channel platforms. Walgreens has approximately 220,000 team members, including nearly 90,000 healthcare service providers, and is committed to being the first choice for retail pharmacy and health services, building trusted relationships that create healthier futures for customers, patients, team members and communities.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree and at least 2 years of experience in one or more of the following: retail, merchandising, planning, demand planning, inventory management, allocation, analytics, finance or replenishment, OR a High School Diploma/GED and at least 4 years of experience in two or more of the following: retail, merchandising, planning, demand planning, inventory management, allocation, analytics, finance or replenishment.
• Experience establishing and maintaining relationships with individuals at all levels of the organization, including the executive level.
• Strong analytical skills, problem solving skills and recommends solutions, superior critical thinking skills, and strong communication and presentation skills.
• Experience developing and delivering presentations to various audience levels within an organization.
• Intermediate level skill in Microsoft Excel (for example: using SUM function, setting borders, setting column width, inserting charts, using text wrap, sorting, setting headers and footers and/or print scaling).
• Intermediate level skill in Microsoft Word (for example: inserting headers, page breaks, page numbers and tables and/or adjusting table columns).
• Intermediate level skill in Microsoft PowerPoint (for example: applying a theme, formatting character spacing, inserting a picture, changing slide layout and theme colors, adding transitions, customizing slide numbers, changing chart style and/or formatting font).
• Willing to travel up to 10% of the time for business purposes (within state and out of state).

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's Degree OR MBA.
• 4 years of experience in one or more of the following: retail, merchandising demand planning, inventory management, allocation, analytics, finance or replenishment.
• At least 1 year of experience in cross functional team leadership.
• JDA, SAP or other merchandise planning tools.

We will consider employment of qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

The Salary below is being provided to promote pay transparency and equal employment opportunities at Walgreens. The actual hourly salary within this range that you will be offered will depend on a variety of factors including geography, skills and abilities, education, experience and other relevant factors. This role will remain open until filled. To review benefits, please click here jobs.walgreens.com/benefits. If you are applying on a job board or unable to click on the link, please copy and paste this URL into your browser jobs.walgreens.com/benefits

Salary Range: $65000 - $113,750.00 / Salaried