Planning Manager

Overview of the role:

The Planning Manager will be responsible for directing the development, execution, and communication of the strategic merchandise planning. This individual will partner with Buying in driving and maximizing sales and margin. The Planning Manager is a key stakeholder and will partner with HOB, OP’s manager, Brand Partners, and cross-functional teammates - leveraging analytics and formulating strategies to drive the business.

The successful candidate must be able to move beyond applying standard templates for solving problems and support the team with creative, innovative ideas that are translated into actionable insights for the business..

What you will do:

• Manage, in complete partnership with Buying and Sales Operations, the six-month Seasonal Merchandise Plans for their respective areas of responsibility and with respect to the company’s financial goals and targets. Guides their Planners in the development, presentation and defense of these plans.
• Manage, for their areas of responsibility, the Monthly Business Review (MBR) process by guiding the Planners in their development of sales, margin, receipt and inventory forecasts; the support of these forecasts with unit projections and the reporting of unit performance, unit forecasts and receipt issues during the MBR meetings.
• Present top-line, cross-channel total results and forecasts at the Monthly Business Review meetings (MBR).
• Manage receipts and inventory against targeted weeks of supply objectives and partner with merchandising to recommend actions that drive sales and maximize gross margin by ensuring the best receipt flow.
• Manage and guide the Planners in the development of an ideal assortment to maximize sales and margin for each buy period, ensuring the appropriate costs, retail and number of customer choices to achieve each period’s targets. Review and approve the Planners’ unit quantities to buy and to reorder which will effectively maximize the ability of each channel to maximize sales and margin for each buy period.
• Manage markdown and promotional strategies and ensure exit strategy for seasonal lines to effectively mitigate aged inventory.
• Create Conceptual Assortment Plans (CAP) for Design needs and final Customer Choice (cc) counts by store level for assortments. 
• Manage and provide direction to their Planners to partner across channels to ensure optimal inventories to best serve the customer needs, sharing inventories as needed which will maximize overall sales and margin.
• Prepare cross-channel department overviews to be presented at Weekly Business Meetings. Prepare comprehensive monthly hindsight recaps and present at monthly meetings.
• Guide the application of the lessons towards the framework for future deliveries and reaction to current business trends.
• Guide the development of their Planners’ Weekly Unit Plans and Key Item programs to exploit category opportunities to drive sales and margin.
• Travel to stores on a regular basis, to observe the performance of their merchandise; to review markdown racks for future decisions on the purchase quantities of merchandise; to gain an understanding of the customer base, store layouts and back stock space; and to foster a strong working relationship with the store teams.
• Oversee the sales performance by comparing the actual sales versus the weekly targets, previous years & projections, and take corrective action in coordination with other departments.