Merchandise Demand Planner (Open to Remote)

$72,000 - $90,000/Yr

Bob's Discount Furniture - Boston, MA

Full-time - Mid Level

Remote - Boston, MA

101-250 employees

Furniture, Home Furnishings, Electronics, and Appliance Retailers

About the position

The Merchandise Demand Planner at Bob's Discount Furniture is a pivotal role responsible for developing and executing demand plans that inform merchandise buying strategies for the company's omni-channel business model. This position requires a strong analytical background and the ability to collaborate across various departments to drive strategic direction in assortment planning, pricing modeling, and overall sales performance. The ideal candidate will leverage their expertise to synthesize data, identify trends, and provide actionable insights to enhance merchandise planning and profitability.

Responsibilities

• Develop pre-launch top-down/bottom-up level plans for sales, inventory, markdowns, and margin in partnership with the Merchants.
• Conduct monthly reforecast of category unit plans/dollar/cost plans, focusing on future opportunities and minimizing sales/inventory risks.
• Communicate over/under bought situations and provide recommendations for resolution.
• Initiate analysis of business trends, including category performance, regional/store, channel, and SKU performance selling.
• Communicate with multiple departments on merchandise sales and margin trends to identify selling behavioral changes.
• Recommend test strategies based on current category performance and initiate analysis.
• Collaborate with merchandising to develop and communicate comprehensive strategy that aligns with future financial product opportunities.
• Incorporate onboarding of new products, retirement of old products, customer-specific inventory requirements, and promotions into the demand planning process.
• Participate in internal and external cross-functional meetings, presenting product-level financials and identifying risks and opportunities.
• Develop a comprehensive Open to Buy plan, considering various supply sources servicing different customer interests.
• Develop assortment plans that tie back to monthly open to buy targets and overall financial sales goals.
• Analyze existing systems and create new workflows and processes with department heads.
• Become a subject matter expert within Demand Planning in the implementation and integration of new planning software tools.
• Design recurring and ad hoc reporting and analysis on key business metrics, presenting findings in a clear and actionable form.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Business Administration, or a related field preferred.
• Minimum 4 years of experience in a planning function, preferably in Retail.
• Strong analytical and quantitative skills; highly proficient with MS Excel and merchandise planning systems.
• Ability to learn new systems quickly and leverage systems and information to influence others.
• Ability to work with data from multiple sources and interpret it to provide actionable conclusions.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to work across the organization.
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to work in a team environment.

Nice-to-haves

• Forecasting/planning experience in the retail industry.
• Experience with tools such as Logility, Power BI, ERP solutions, and Integrated Supply Chain planning solutions.

Benefits

• Nationally provided Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance
• Paid Vacation, Personal Days, Sick Days, Holidays, work anniversary and Birthday
• 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan with a Generous Company match
• Pet Insurance
• Employer-paid basic Life Insurance with the option to add Voluntary Life Insurance
• Financial Planning and Voluntary Legal Benefits
• Generous Employee Discount starting on the first day