Business Analyst

About Excelligence

Excelligence Learning Corporation is a privately held education-services company headquartered in Monterey, California. As a global leader in early childhood and elementary education, we develop, manufacture, and distribute over 20,000 educational products and instructional solutions under award-winning brands such as Discount School Supply®, Really Good Stuff®, Frog Street®, Children’s Factory®, and Steve Spangler Science®.

Our mission is “Empowering the Education Experience,” supported by cutting-edge technologies, early brain science, and robust fulfillment systems that serve over 33 million young learners and the educators who support them.

With major operations across the U.S.—including our distribution and manufacturing center near Kansas City in Gardner, Kansas—we combine national reach with local impact, earning recognition for environmental stewardship and as a certified Great Place to Work®.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Business Analyst who thrives on using data to drive operational and strategic decisions. This role will leverage Excel reporting, Tableau, and AI tools to support our Inventory Management, Purchasing, and Merchandising functions.

The ideal candidate will bring strong analytical skills along with experience analyzing product performance, customer trends, and merchandising or retail data to support business decisions.

The primary focus of this role is to enhance our business intelligence infrastructure and integrate AI-powered resources into business management and decision-making.

Key Responsibilities

• Analyze product performance, SKU productivity, and assortment trends to support merchandising and planning decisions.
• Identify insights related to customer purchasing patterns and product demand trends to inform inventory and assortment strategies.
• Partner with merchandising and product teams to evaluate product lifecycle performance, pricing insights, and category opportunities.
• Deliver dashboards that provide visibility into product performance, customer demand, and operational KPIs.
• Develop and leverage interactive dashboards in Tableau (or similar BI tools) to deliver insights on service levels, supplier performance, forecast accuracy, and operational KPIs.
• Identify opportunities to leverage AI and Cooper by developing tools that advance planning, forecasting insights, and operational decision-making.
• Lead projects aimed at improving demand planning capabilities and forecast accuracy at the SKU level.
• Create weekly inventory and purchasing performance dashboards to highlight trends and service level improvement opportunities.
• Support forecasting of future inventory needs through scenario modeling, exception management, and simulation tools.
• Conduct item master data reviews to ensure data integrity across ERP and planning systems.
• Partner closely with Merchandising teams to define and measure vendor performance, SKU productivity, and assortment planning insights.
• Manage reporting and analysis related to import freight, freight forwarder services, and tariff costs.

Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Retail Management, Data Analytics, Supply Chain, or a related field.

Experience

• 3 years of experience in business analysis, data analytics, planning, buying, or inventory management.
• Proven track record supporting cross-functional teams with data analysis and insights.
• Experience delivering data-driven reporting and recommendations that influence operational strategy.

Preferred:

• Experience analyzing product performance, merchandising data, retail analytics, or customer insights.
• Experience supporting product management, merchandising, or category management teams.

Technical Skills

• Experience with Tableau, Power BI, or other business intelligence platforms.
• Experience using AI tools for analytics, modeling, or business insights.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including complex formulas and pivot tables.
• Familiarity with ERP systems and inventory data structures preferred.

Analytical & Soft Skills

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication skills to translate analytics into actionable business insights.
• Highly organized, self-motivated, and comfortable working independently or collaboratively.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Excelligence is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all individuals regardless of race, religion, gender identity, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected classification.