Urban Outfitters Merchandise Planner

About the position

A Merchandise Planner plays a crucial role in retail management by optimizing inventory levels and ensuring that the right products are available at the right time. They use data and judgment to support financial success by meeting or exceeding sales, gross margin, and inventory turn goals.

Responsibilities

• Develop Department and style-level plans based on customer strategy, historical trends, and test information.
• Responsible for the quantification of the buy to drive profitable topline sales.
• Create and maintain assortment plans, including style counts, by class and channel, for upcoming season.
• Create color-level planning based on inventory needs to support the rate of sale, store presentation, targeted sell-through percentages, current risk parameters, and historical trends (long-range goals).
• Develop entrance and exit strategies for styles.
• Forecast sales, markdowns, receipts, IMU, and margin based on current sales trends using O9 Planning.
• Create and manage weekly regular and markdown sales and inventory plans for their area of responsibility by channel.
• Lead discussion with key cross-functional partners about decisions to grow, maintain or decline the business.
• Responsible for profitably growing sales and ensuring responsible inventory investment.
• Analyze sales performance, customer reactions, and market trends to anticipate product needs and adjustments.
• Summarize weekly, monthly, and quarterly financial and assortment performance vs. plan at class and attribute levels and drive action points in partnership with their buyer.
• Drive class-level planning to determine promotional activities and clearance sales.
• Conduct seasonal hind sights to support future buy plans.

Requirements

• A bachelor's degree in business, finance, merchandising, or a related field is preferred.
• 2 to 4 years of related experience.
• Ability to analyze sales data, market trends, and customer behavior to make informed decisions.
• Ensuring accuracy in inventory levels, sales forecasts, and promotional plans.
• Effectively collaborating with various departments such as marketing, buying, and production.
• Identifying issues in the supply chain and developing strategies to address them.
• Prioritizing tasks and managing time efficiently to meet deadlines.
• Familiarity with planning software and tools like O9 Planning, Excel, and similar inventory management systems.
• Understanding key retail math concepts including gross margin, inventory turnover, and open-to-buy management.
• Being flexible and responsive to changing market conditions and business needs.
• Developing long-term plans and strategies to optimize inventory and support business goals.

Benefits

• medical
• dental
• vision
• PTO
• generous employee discounts
• retirement savings
• and much more!