Senior Merchandise Planner

Role overview

Key responsibilities

• Own annual budgets, seasonal strategies, and open-to-buy plans across brand, department, class, sub-class, and item levels.
• Build WSSI plans and reports, compare actual results with plans, identify exceptions, and drive timely corrective action in weekly reviews.
• Partner with Buyers on seasonal range and buy plans for different store sizes, balancing quantities, options, capacity, assortment, financial parameters, and customer needs.
• Review replenishment, warehouse receipts, allocations, launch readiness, consolidation opportunities, ageing stock, and wholesale distribution.
• Analyze sell-through, markdowns, promotions, and end-of-season performance; recommend pricing actions and seek management approval.
• Track orders, cancellations, excesses, underbuys, reforecasts, and monthly inflows to maintain open-to-buy visibility.
• Conduct store and competitor visits and turn product, range, pricing, and customer observations into planning actions.
• Maintain data integrity, identify system gaps, and communicate system and reporting improvements.

Essential requirements

• 5–8 years of relevant merchandise planning experience in fashion retail.
• Experience owning budgets, assortment strategies, inventory plans, open-to-buy controls, and in-season performance management.
• Strong merchandise planning and retail analytics capability, including annual budgets, WSSI, assortment planning, sell-through, forward cover, markdown, and margin management.
• Advanced analytical and organizational skills, with the ability to interpret performance across products, stores, seasons, and product lifecycles.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel-based planning, reporting, financial tracking, and scenario analysis.

Additional advantages

• A postgraduate qualification such as an MBA in Retail Management, or specialist training from NIFT, Pearl Academy, or a comparable fashion and retail institution, is a plus.
• Fashion retail planning experience across stores and wholesale partners, including store grading, replenishment, launches, allocation, promotions, and end-of-season activity, is a plus.
• Understanding of customer, competitor, and store-level product trends is advantageous.

Candidate capabilities

• Combine commercial judgment with detailed analysis from brand financial targets through class, sub-class, item, store, and product decisions.
• Communicate exceptions clearly and work with Buyers, management, warehouse teams, stores, and wholesale partners to implement decisions.
• Maintain accurate trackers and reports, investigate data or system issues, and use store visits and performance evidence to improve recommendations.

Role opportunity

• Broad ownership across financial planning, assortment, inventory, pricing, allocation, and in-season management.
• Direct exposure to Buyers, management, stores, warehouses, and wholesale partners, with influence over commercial decisions.
• A hands-on environment that values rigorous analysis, accurate systems, store insight, and timely action.