Outlet Merchandise Planner at Levi Strauss & Co.

Job description

Purpose

JOB DESCRIPTION

The Outlet Planner is a trusted advisor to the Outlet Merchandise Planning team and serves two primary functions:

Support the brand strategy and vision in the Outlet channel through investment in, and maintenance of, an optimum MFO assortment.
Provide the wider business with a mechanism through which inventory can be liquidated; maintaining balance between the commercial needs of profitability, speed, and brand protection/distribution control.

The Outlet Planner will use strong analytical skills; financial acumen and knowledge of the local market to inform the Outlet buy plans. The Outlet Planner must be able to identify key business issues, taking the initiative to investigate and provide analysis on opportunities and risks in the business. This role will work closely with allocation and inventory management partners to ensure effective execution of the end-to-end strategy.

Key Results

• Merchandise & Channel Performance
• Inventory Performance

Key Responsibilities

Pre/Post-Season

• Collaborate with Merchant team to develop customer segment productivity targets (assortment architecture) based on historical performance and brand direction
• Develop bottom-up sales & inventory PC9 plan, delivering to line productivity and informing financial & inventory decisions
• Partner with Merchant and Inventory teams to build monthly flow plan for sales and inventory, accommodating MFO product lifecycle alongside expected flush pipeline.
• Collaborate with Finance and Commercial teams to reconcile bottom-up merchandise plans and top down sales targets
• Conduct quantitative analysis and insights (Gen/Cat/Fit/Sub-class) to optimize line profitability—monetize new opportunities and identify risks
• Gather qualitative/quantitative feedback from key stakeholders (sales team/merchandising/marketing) in order to inform future buy decision
• Perform analysis on seasons’ financial and assortment performance in order to develop next seasons’ inventory plans.

In-Season

• Build monthly demand forecast and propose relevant changes based on latest sales trend and inventory health
• Effectively manage outlet capacity and MFO/flush mix according to changing needs of the market in season (monitor and react)
• Drive consistent markdown/promotional cadence in order to manage in-season profitability, and maximize full price sell thru/margin whilst maintaining health of inventory profile.
• Actively support local and regional S&OP process, providing necessary insights and recommending courses of action.
• Work with inventory management to ensure consistent in-season allocation & replenishment to drive appropriate coverage across stores and DC
• Work with Inventory Management, Asset Recovery and Commercial/Finance teams to manage through inventory spikes beyond the capacity of Outlet.
• Bridge the communication between regional and local functional teams to ensure ways of working and brand strategy are consistently executed in local market.

% of Time:

• 20-30%
• 70-80%

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

Experience

2-4 years of work experience in Retail business

Specialized Knowledge/Technical Skills

• Strong analytical skills to interpret meaningful themes from quantitative data
• Ability to articulate key financial measures, and how they are used in key systems/tools.
• Highly proficient with Microsoft Excel.
• Decision Making And Problem Solving
• Able to use rigor and logic to solve problems with effective solutions
• Ability to problem solve independently, and also through strong partnerships with both local and regional business partners
• Ability to analyze and assess impact of decisions on department and wider business partners.
• Proactively identify business issues and develop creative solutions.
• Consistently prioritize and manage workload and processes to meet objectives
• Ability to be an independent problem solver, and excel in an environment without extensive resources and with high ambiguity
• Communication
• Ability to build constructive and effective relationships with a broad, diverse group of business partners, mainly the cross-functional team
• Ability to influence cross-functional partners
• Strong interpersonal skills and proven ability to work with diverse teams. Ability to adjust communication style in order to provide information and direction in an effective manner