Merchandise Planner

Key Responsibilities

Merchandise & Sales Planning

• Develop seasonal, monthly, and weekly merchandise plans in line with Nysaa's sales and commercial objectives.
• Prepare sales, stock, intake, and inventory forecasts by category, brand, store, and channel.
• Analyze historical sales trends, market trends, seasonality, and promotional activity to support merchandise planning.
• Monitor performance against budget, forecast, and business targets and recommend corrective actions.
• Support the development of assortment and range plans based on customer demand and commercial performance.

Inventory & Stock Management

• Maintain optimal inventory levels and ensure effective stock availability across stores.
• Monitor stock cover, sell-through, stock turn, ageing, and availability.
• Identify overstock, understock, slow-moving, and non-performing products and recommend appropriate actions.
• Work closely with Supply Chain and Operations on replenishment and stock allocation.
• Develop and maintain store-level allocation and replenishment plans.
• Support new store openings by preparing initial stock and assortment requirements.

Open-to-Buy (OTB) & Financial Planning

• Manage and monitor the Open-to-Buy (OTB) plan in coordination with the Merchandising and Finance teams.
• Track planned versus actual sales, purchases, stock levels, and inventory commitments.
• Provide recommendations on future purchases based on sales performance and available inventory budget.
• Support markdown and clearance planning to optimize inventory and minimize aged stock.

Reporting & Analysis

• Prepare regular trading and merchandise performance reports.
• Analyze key KPIs including:
  • Sales and sales growth
  • Sell-through %
  • Stock turn
  • Stock cover
  • Gross margin
  • Average selling price
  • Inventory ageing
  • Availability / out-of-stock %
  • Markdown performance
• Highlight key business risks and opportunities and provide actionable recommendations to management.
• Maintain accurate merchandise planning and reporting data.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Buyers to translate category and brand strategies into commercially viable merchandise plans.