Planner Intermediate

Westchester Merchandise Planning Full-time #LI-DG1 Position Overview

Join the Follett Team, where employees are valued, respected, and offered career paths throughout its many campus locations.

Follett serves over half of the students in the United States and works with 80,000 schools as a leading provider of education technology, services, and print and digital content. We're higher education's largest campus retailer and a hub for school spirit and community as we operate nearly 1,200 local campus stores and over 1,600 virtual stores across the continent. We take pride in the fact that for more than 140 years, we have been helping to improve people's lives by supporting a lifetime of learning and education.

Merchandise Planning has an essential role in driving profitable sales via inventory optimization at the category and item level by store. The

Merchandise Planner - Intermediate

develops the financial and merchandise assortment plans at the department and store level. Manage the Open to Buy process to positively impact inventory goals. Identify and exploit sales opportunities. Responsible for achieving sales plans with optimal inventory turns and assisting in using best practices to manage the department. Recommend disposition plans to liquidate aged inventory and overstock. Responsible for replenishment of key categories at the store/item level on a regular cadence to hit stock goals.

Responsibilities

Financial Planning:

Develops monthly sales plans by department using corporate goals and strategies.

Establish monthly markdown and receipt plans to support the monthly sales plan.

Drive department goals to deliver financial components of sales, gross margin, and inventory turnover.

Financial & Assortment Analysis/Reporting:

Manages inventory levels using an OTB process.

Forecasts future month financial components by the department.

Executes purchase order placement/modification/cancellation recommendations based on OTB disposition.

Store/Vendor Communication Process:

Responds to communication in a timely manner.

Responds to merchandise requests in a timely and financially responsible manner.

Provides purchase orders to vendors in a timely manner with appropriate lead times.

Provides item forecasts to vendors.

Communicate delivery expectations to all vendors.

Fosters open and honest communication with the stores and vendors.

Replenishment:

Ensure assigned categories meet or exceed stock targets while maximizing the return on inventory investment.

Optimize the replenishment system's rules and settings to minimize manual intervention.

Utilize current, historical, and seasonal trends to forecast and identify sales opportunities and inventory risks.

Drive collaborative planning between vendors, merchants, and store operations to ensure timely shipment of purchase orders.

Provide analytical support to maximize the return on inventory investment, maximize the effectiveness of preseason sets and ensure that customer demand is met.

Special projects as assigned.

Bachelor's degree or equivalent in a related field.

3+ years of experience in planning/allocation and/or buying.

2+ years of experience in planning in a retail environment preferred.

Intermediate to advanced computer proficiency in Microsoft Excel.

Intermediate to advanced experience using JDA MMS and Retail IDEAS or similar retail planning & reporting systems is required.

Excellent oral and written communication skills.

Strong analytical skills with the ability to implement creative and innovative ideas to increase merchandise sales and manage inventory.

Proficient in Excel and experience with Demand Planning/Open-to-Buy tools.

Strong organizational abilities and attention to detail in a fast-paced environment.

Ability to multi-task, meet deadlines and adapt to a dynamic work environment.

Work well and develop strong relationships with cross-functional teams.

Location: Westchester, IL.

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