Planner

Adore Me, a subsidiary of Victoria’s Secret & Co. (NYSE: VSXY) since being acquired in December 2022, is seeking a Merchandise Planner who will serve as the business manager for a book of business and is primarily responsible for translating the Merchants vision into viable plans and profitable results. The Planner is responsible for developing and maintaining sales, inventory and margin plans that tie to financial targets for an assigned category. In partnership with the Merchant, the Planner drives additional value through optimizing the assortment across multiple selling channels, making strategic distortions to maximize productivity and customer satisfaction.

Responsibilities:

Pre-Season

• Build and refine a category plan based at the week/channel level based on guidance from leadership and pre-season targets/strategy
• Partner with Merchants to create and maintain a seasonal theme-based assortment list and volume targets by selling channel
• Develop assortment plans for sales, margin and inventory at the style/choice level in support of productivity and financial targets
• Use demand forecast, pattern after items, targets from attribute and category plans, test results and historical trends
• Incorporate impact of events and entrance/exit strategies
• Propose initial and promotional pricing by item; collaborate to deliver sales plan with recommendations for events, based performance and targets
• Communicate merchandise plans to other functional groups as follows:
• Logistics for their review from a capacity standpoint. Information gained is then reconciled with the plan; issues reviewed and discussed together
• Finance to inform their rolling business plan; together review and discuss any related issues
• Stores to inform their labor estimates
• Compliance to inform of possible categories for new product quality, testing and regulatory considerations
• Marketing to give strategic direction for the development/refinement of their seasonal campaign plans

In-Season

• Analyze and reflect current trends in performance of strategy based on actual sales performance; revise in-season plans for sales and profitability, control inventory levels
• Partner with Merchant to develop and propose tactics in response to current business trends
• Manage and execute promotional and liquidation strategy
• Manage the assortment to approved inventory targets
• Communicate revisions both within the team and cross functionally
• Actively manage inventory levels by pulling up, pushing back or cancelling orders and/or recommending reorders

Reporting/Analytics

• Analyze performance for area of responsibility relative to performance of plan and trend for both period and season sales, margin and inventory
• Prepare recommendations and alternatives for key financial meetings/decisions in order to maximize sales and margin and optimize inventory productivity, in partnership with Merchant.

Qualifications:

• 4-6 years of retail planning, demand forecasting experience, inventory management, allocation, assortment planning, or replenishment experience, financial planning or financial analysis experience
• Bachelor’s degree in finance, operations, economics, business, statistics
• Requires strong problem-solving and analytical skills; strong aptitude with numbers; retail math skills
• Strong technical skills in Microsoft Excel or related planning, finance or analytical systems
• Merchant or merchandising experience a plus
• Positive business influence skills
• Able to identify and influence critical stakeholders, proactively solve problems, and recommend solutions
• Strong communication and presentation skills: concisely presents complex information and recommendations in terms meaningful to a variety of audiences
• Demonstrated leadership capability and executive presence
• Optimization Mindset – designs and develops models/plans to optimize decisions
• Builds collaborative partnerships cross-functionally; identifies/influences critical stakeholders
• Ability to articulate detailed action plans to successfully accomplish goal
• Understands and executes against business strategy and goals
• Make decisions with limited information but also able to synthesize large quantities of data to drive business decisions
• Ability to meet deadlines and handle multiple tasks/projects
• The ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with various levels of management
• Ability and willingness to work on-site at our office in Tribeca on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays