Ralph Lauren Allocator, Women's Polo PRO

Ralph Lauren; Nutley (NJ); On-site; USD 65,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Ralph Lauren seeks an Allocator to manage product allocations and retail analysis, ensuring plans support financial goals and inventory health.

You will partner with planning and buying teams to drive sales, monitor weeks of supply, and provide insights through weekly and monthly reporting. This role requires strong analytical skills and retail math proficiency, with collaboration across stores, DCs and merchandising teams.

Qualifications

• Experience with allocation systems and retail analytics tools.
• Strong math, analytical thinking and ability to communicate findings.
• Detail-oriented with proven project management abilities.

Responsibilities

• Prepare and analyze materials for business reviews.
• Support planning teams with store, product and size analysis.
• Execute initial allocations and in-season replenishment to stores.
• Track inventory performance: weeks of supply, sell-through, WOS.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams on distribution and trading strategies.
• Generate weekly/monthly store reports and provide actionable insights.
• Ensure inventory turns and GMROI meet targets.

Skills

Retail math

Project management

Analytical thinking

Communication skills

Excel proficiency

Tools

IA/JDA Allocation Systems

Global and Retail Insight

Island Pacific

Relate

GFE+

GBIS

Job description

Company Description

Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL) is a global leader in the design, marketing and distribution of premium lifestyle products in five categories: apparel, accessories, home, fragrances, and hospitality. For more than 50 years, Ralph Lauren's reputation and distinctive image have been consistently developed across an expanding number of products, brands and international markets. The Company's brand names, which include Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren Collection, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Polo Ralph Lauren, Double RL, Lauren Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren Children, Chaps, among others, constitute one of the world's most widely recognized families of consumer brands. At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all. We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.

Position Overview

The Allocator will manage all aspects of allocation of product and retail analysis. This role is responsible for executing initial allocations and replenishment of stock to stores, ensuring allocation and distribution plans support the financial objectives of the total division. The Allocator also provides data analysis and insights to the Planning team, including allocation analysis (weeks of supply, service levels, etc.), sales to stock analysis, and overall reporting.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Operations/Financial

• Responsible for preparation and analysis for business Reviews
• Support planning teams with store, product and size analysis
• Participate in super season buy reviews, hindsights, in-season performance and any go forward strategies
• Partner with Buying and Planning teams to formulate and implement strategies to drive sales
• Drive financial success of a product group by leveraging forecast capabilities in allocation tool to ensure appropriate inventory is allocated to stores to meet or exceed sales, gross profit, and inventory turn goals
• Analyzing, tracking and monitoring Distribution Center (DC) and Store available inventory for the product group, maximizing WOS, sales to stock ratios, turn and sell through
• Execute the release of initial product distributions and in season replenishment to stores
• Monitorsales, sell through and WOS to ensure full size availability of best sellers are in stores
• Partner with cross functional teams to ensure timely and accurate execution of new store openings
• UDF (Unit DistributionFlow) Preparation by partnering with Control Tower to provide a weekly/monthly/year view for finance/ DC operations/ Store operations scheduling inbound
• Review weekly to ensure on target to achieve Forecast analysis and review
• Develop and implement allocation strategies for seasonal product and peak selling periods that support style selling trends and optimize available inventory
• Recommend store distribution based on APS and WOS. Collaborate to determine minimum/maximum quantities for lower volume stores - Preseason/Inseason
• Analyze and recap style/color/size selling trends across the various store attribute filters (destination, climate, alpha, district) pre and post season
• Generate store reports weekly and monthly (including: in stock report, key item recaps, etc.) and make recommendations based on analysis
• Create appropriate size breaks by product category to support selling Inventory Management
• Ensure the financial success of one or more departments by meeting or exceeding sales, gross margin, gross margin return on investment (GMROI) and inventory turn goals
• Utilize current systems to monitor basic and fashion allocations to support financial goals
• Monitor allocations to the Unit Distribution Forecast (UDF) provided to ensure no substantial variances to initial forecast while partnering with Control Tower
• Effectively communicate outages in inventory within the fleet as well as the status of inventory within the distribution center
• Effectively communicate the intended allocation strategy Communications/Relationships

Communications/Relationships

• Develop and maintain effective working relationships within cross-functional team (stores, buying, planning, marketing, visual, etc.)
• Communicate initial release and replenishment strategies within cross functional team
• Participate in cross functional meetings, contributing input on distribution and/ or trading strategies
• Compose and deliver key trading messages to the wider business
• Manage communication regarding inventory/replenishment
• Visit stores to gain insight to performance and availability

Experience, Skills & Knowledge

• Preferred but not required - Experience using the following systems: IA and JDA Allocation Systems, Global and Retail Insight, Island Pacific, Relate, GFE+, GBIS - Global reporting tool
• Proficient in retail math
• Strong organizational skills, detail-oriented, focused on accuracy
• Strong project management skills: ability to prioritize tasks, manage time to meet deadlines
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Microsoft Office Suite skills including exceptional excel skills
• Ability to quickly learn technical applications
• Effectively and clearly communicates by leveraging strong listening, written and oral communication skills
• Able to build and maintain productive relationships within team and cross-functional teams
• Flexible and adaptable to change