Merchandise Planner at Weylandts Furniture Cape Town (Pty) Ltd

Role Purpose:

• This position is responsible for planning and forecasting the merchandise range within the designated business unit of Weylandts.

Key responsibilities:

• Ensuring in-stock availability of product ranges for the relevant categories on a weekly basis.
• Ensure that stock orders are placed in a timely manner, aligned with each supplier’s lead time.
• Ensure that order quantities are optimized to maximize container utilization while taking stock holding levels into consideration
• Manage stock levels through new orders and clearance sales / Always on Sale (AOS).
• Understand each SKU’s lifecycle and production cycle to determine whether to build up stock to maintain adequate stockholding, or to manage a smooth and controlled depletion of stock ahead of replacement
• Aligning historical and future product performance to forecast on a weekly and monthly basis, as well as for budgeting purposes annually.
• Rate of Sales (ROS): ensure correct and that changes are presented with reasoning.
• Review on SKU level ROS movement – present changes in ROS – investigate why, bulk orders etc.
• Critically appraise past successes and failures to identify risks and opportunities.
• Identification of category opportunities, for example (natural sells better than darker colours, but if display stock changes the ROS will change accordingly) OR Shipping: risks & opportunities (CNY, Port congestion) etc.
• Review cost estimates for existing products.
• MTO – ensure that pricing is in line with active stock.
• Price increases quarterly.
• Impact of inflation/deflation on ROS
• Proposal of new orders required (in conjunction with Buyer).
• Place orders on time.
• Have one month stock holding in DC of Local product.
• Ongoing control of the spend to approved budget.
• Forecasting for promotions (social media promotions) with the buyer and department manager, as well as placing of promotional orders and track sell through.
• Develop and maintain effective clearance triggers and strategy.
• Proposes potential AOS product and timing.
• Partake in range review as required: prepare, analyse, and making recommendations.
• Liaising with information systems to design reports to ensure visibility of the correct information [i.e. stock, margin, availability].
• Tickets – Handle ticket systems queries and store special requests. Allocate requests to relevant department / employee.
• Reassess current systems and processes and propose ongoing improvements.

What you bring:

• Relevant certificate, diploma, or degree.
• Proven working experience as a Merchandise Planner (minimum 2 years), specifically dealing with replenishment.
• Good understanding of retail industry/ trends.

Competencies and behaviours for success:

• Highly degree of numeracy, able to work with large volumes of data.
• Strong analytical skills – ability to think strategically & commercially.
• Attention to detail, accuracy, disciplined to check work.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office including Excel.
• Team working and interpersonal skills.
• Excellent organisation skills and the ability to multitask.
• Ability to work under pressure in a fast-paced environment.