Merchandise Planner (1-Year Contract)

Reporting to the Manager, Merchandise Planning, the Merchandise Planner is responsible for driving sales and gross margin through well planned inventory, optimizing growth by replenishing, creating and managing brand plans and style level plans in line with the financial objectives of the company. The ideal candidate will actively contribute to maximizing and capturing global sales, through analysis, effective stock management and strategic activities in a fast-growing company.

Merchandise Planning Operations- 80%

• Create and maintain performance reports to analyze sales, margin and inventory on a regular basis
• Conduct monthly business review meetings and review key initiatives or analysis with the buying team in order to provide insights on the business and drive actions
• Provide regular feedback to the Manager, Merchandise Planning on any risks/opportunities and monthly reconciliation to OTB targets
• Provide forecasts for future monthly inventory needs to vendors in order to ensure a healthy replenishment cadence
• Work collaboratively with the Manager, Merchandise Planning and/or team to ensure deadlines are met
• Drive sales growth by analyzing and replenishing inventory needs on a weekly basis
• Create and maintain plans for a portfolio of brands to achieve set KPI’s for the department
• Collaborate with buying team to inform budget on newness
• Work collaboratively with Merchandise Planning Business Analyst by providing quantitative and qualitative feedback on the forecasting models
• Communicate big reorders to the buying team on a weekly basis to provide visibility on replenishment needs and ensure alignment between both teams
• Work collaboratively with Buyers to effectively review the budget by assessing the performance of the business and developing key brand strategies in order to meet plan
• Meet replenishment monthly target and explain deviations to plan to the Manager, Merchandise Planning

Projects & Initiatives - 20%

• Develop additional ad hoc reports and analysis to support business needs
• Participate in reviewing and improving the planning processes, templates, and tools on an ongoing basis to drive efficiency gains and planning accuracy
• Participate in cross-functional projects, working with stakeholders towards collective goals

• Excellent English written and verbal communication skills, French is an asset
• Knowledge of luxury, retail or e-commerce, an asset
• Advanced skills using Microsoft Excel
• Knowledge of Tableau, an asset
• A minimum of 3-5 years merchandise planning experience, preferably in the retail, e-commerce or replenishment industry
• Strong understanding of merchandising strategies for beauty, home, technology and activity categories
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business, or a related field

SKILLS

• Strong retail math, financial planning and forecasting skills
• Creative thinker with excellent problem solving abilities
• Ability to thrive in a fast paced and high growth environment
• Strong sense of teamwork and ability to multitask
• Highly analytical and detailed oriented