PLANNING ANALYST - New York City
Fine jewelry company is seeking a Planning Analyst who will be responsible for the collection of data from wholesale partners and reporting of sales data to increase sales productivity for visibility to leadership to make informed decisions. Candidates should come from a position of knowledge and experience in evaluating their current systems to report and develop a standardized / customized tool for constant improvement.
The Planning Analyst will be responsible for maintaining top-line and door-level plans by account and making sure inventory, receipt, and margin goals are aligned with corporate objectives. The ideal candidate has worked with a MACY’s or Wal-mart vendor before and understands their systems and needs.
In addition, you will be responsible for analyzing point of sale data and will assist the sales team in entering accurate information, forecasts, and collating data into weekly and monthly forecasts.
Candidates should have 3 years or more of wholesale planning, allocation, or buying experience and also possess strong retail math skills. Advanced Excel skills are also expected.
è Only candidates with Walmart (Retail Link) or Macy’s experience should apply!
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Manage the open-to-buy to profitability plan and to grow the retail, web, and wholesale business
- Work closely with the Product Manager to ensure all opportunity and liability are addressed
- Set top line revenue targets and provides financial planning guidance for all buys to ensure proper penetration by product category
- Partner with Product Manager to ensure forecasts support the retail, web and wholesale financial flow
- Make additional recommendations to Product Manager to address product gaps and/or discrepancies
- Monitor ongoing demand planning and inventory needs for retail, web, and wholesale business
- Serve as the team lead for reporting, including weekly top-line selling performance
- Compile style/color/size-level selling data for use in merchandising and inventory planning exercises
- Provide ongoing analysis and review using the open-to-buy as a guide
- Work closely with the Product Manager to accurately forecast retail, web, and wholesale inventory, revenues, returns, promotions, markdowns, etc. impact
- Instrumental in forward budget planning using the open-to-buy metrics
- Identify opportunities to improve forecast accuracy, establish action plans, and follow-up
- Manage budget process including product mix, budget category ratios and flow by month, including monthly forecasts of key replenishment programs (NOS)
- Manage inventory from investment through execution, including ongoing assessments and updates to inventory levels for retail, web, and wholesale businesses, models (teken), release strategies, and recommendations of future receipts
- Develop and execute size, pack, and size balancing strategies
- Partner with other functional areas such as the Warehouse and Information Technology teams on processes, systems, and reporting as required
QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS:
- Walmart or wholesale experience required
- Retail Link experience preferred
- Bachelor’s degree in business, or related field
- 5-7 years previous experience in merchandise planning and allocation
- Excellent Retail Math and advance Excel skills required
- Lawson M3, Qlikview, SLIM4, and Access knowledge preferable
- Team player and problem solver in a demanding deadline driven environment.
- Motivated, proactive, and highly organized
- Strong analytical and problem solving skills with ability to reach supported conclusions and make robust recommendations
- Experience working with diverse cultures
- Retail math a plus
- Ability to multi-task and prioritize and highly analytical ability
- Must have good negotiating and influencing skills and ability to resolve conflict and multiple priorities