Merchandise Planner

Job Summary:
Founded in 1956, Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is the premier specialty retailer of home furnishings in the United States and Canada. Our brands are among the best known and respected in the industry, including Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Pottery Barn Teen, and West Elm. We successfully market our brands through three major channels - retail stores, catalogs, and the internet. One of the key growth strategies for Williams-Sonoma Inc. is global expansion. This expansion will be done through company-owned & operated stores/DTC channels, and through strategic franchise partnerships.

This position is a highly strategic and analytic role for WSI’s Global Inventory Management team. The responsibility will include the planning and purchasing for our company-owned stores and websites. This position will develop and execute demand forecasting and inventory management; ensuring rightbalance of assortment investments and accurate inventory flow in optimizing inventory, maximizing sales and profitability while driving business initiatives in partnership with cross functional teams towards meeting divisional financial targets and brand strategies.

Reports to Director/ Manager, Inventory Management.

**Pre-Season**:

- Partner with the merchant team to develop annual and seasonal financial plans that support the brand strategies.
- Partner with merchants to establish seasonal assortment roll up plans, both top down and at SKU level and ensure right balance of inventory optimization on newness and core business vs plan sales and merchandising strategies.
- Analyze business performance, SKU productivity, trends and provide hind sights to identify opportunities and drive pre-season strategy and assortment plans.
- Partner with the Merchant team to resolve SKU issues to ensure they do not negatively impact brand performance.
- Ensure SKU plans are completed and passed to achieve PO placement deadlines and address any issues that impede this goal for core and seasonal products.
- Manage successful placement and accurate tracking of brand Global purchase orders.

**In-Season**:

- Review current business and partner with merchant team to take appropriate actions to maximize sales, margin, and inventory productivity (daily, weekly, monthly) at all levels.
- Partner with the merchant team to develop 12 monthly rolling financial forecasts that supports the brand strategy and maximizes sales and margin within inventory budgets.
- Analyze inventory levels and ensure inventory levels support brand strategy, minimize stock outs and manage inventory flow to ensure appropriate in-stock rates are achieved for core product and seasonal launches.
- Analyze and build promotional plans in partnership with the merchant team to update, plan exit strategies, and accurately forecast monthly promotional plans that support sales, margin, and inventory goals achievement.
- Manage seasonal promotional plans in Relex planning tool and plan SKU level demand forecast and re-order plans to maximize SKU productivity and achieve inventory optimization.
- Manage placement and tracking of brand Global purchase orders in collaboration with order management team and identify solutions to resolve fall out.
- Proactively and collaboratively address any shortcomings or opportunities to improve tools and processes.
- Collaborate with allocation team on allocation parameters and flow quantities to support promotional activity, high-seasonal holidays, markdown replenishment, and in-store events.
- Collaborate with order Management, supply chain, logistics and distribution functions to identify and resolve supply chain and shipment timeline issues.

**Ongoing**:

- Provide analytical reporting.
- Proactively evaluate on reports, tools, and process flow to assess and give recommendations where improvements can be made.
- Build and maintain strong cross functional collaboration as an integral partner across merchandising, retail, marketing, visual, allocation, sourcing, logistics and the distribution centers to achieve goals.
- Actively participate in creating and maintaining positive team environment. Support in training and development of new team members.

**DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS & COMPETENCIES**:

- A Diploma/Degree with minimum 2-5 years’ experience in a role with analytical/strategic responsibilities - Retail industry experience is a plus.
- Possess Strong technical, analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Proficiency in Advanced Microsoft Excel (eg. Formulas, Pivot tables, V-Lookup etc) is a must.
- Proficiency in Microsoft PowerBI preferred.
- Meticulous and detail-oriented with strong follow through.
- Strong organizational skills & ability to multi-task.
- Ability to work in a fast paced, collaborative environment.
- A good team player with a positive working attitude.
- Able to deliver results by influencing internal and external partners.
- Have good interpersonal, written and verbal communication, listening and presen