Merchandise Planner, Pants & Shirts

• Accountable for departmental success
• Responsible for OTB re-forecasting at a weekly level to reflect trends, alignment with company direction, and solutions for risks and opportunities
• Through analysis, strategic thinking, and collaboration develop the financial classification plans/key items plans for sales, margin and inventory
• Proactively identify issues and opportunities within product mix and use analytics and creative problem solving to drive profitable solutions
• Actively recommend markdown and liquidation strategies to maximize store profitability
• Collaborate with the merchant team to develop and communicate a comprehensive pre-season strategy that aligns financial and product opportunities across multiple departments
• Participate in all aspects of line building process with Merchandising Lead or participate in department projects to improve systems or efficiencies
• Ensure alignment of top/down and bottoms/up style/color plans with merchandising strategies and financial targets
• Partner with the Inventory Planning team to maximize profitability through pre-season store cluster analysis, initial allocation, DC management, and in-season management
• Drive profitability through leading and executing promotional and markdown strategies which align with divisional and brand financial goals
• Analyze business weekly as it relates to last forecast and last year, identify trends and highlight selling that exceeds or falls short of expectation
• Collaborate with other planners to drive consistency and best practices throughout the organization

• Minimum 3-4 years of experience in planning which includes knowledge of buying and allocation
• Retail experience preferred
• Undergraduate degree in finance, economics, accounting, business or related field-- MBA a plus
• Excellent technical skills – MS Office (specifically Excel, Word)
• Stores and/or direct experience required
• Customer-centric focus with understanding of customer needs and ability to understand market trends
• Ability to build strong relationships with a diverse group of cross functional partners and cascade the proper level of information to support decision making
• Possesses a clear understanding of financial measurements
• sales, weeks of supply, inventory turn, sales thru and how to impact them
• Proven ability to interpret and synthesize data into intelligent business decisions
• Strong organizational and time management skills
• able to handle multiple priorities
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to work in fast-paced, often-changing environment

MBA a plus

• Merchandise discount at select KnitWell Group brands
• Support for individual development plus opportunities for career mobility within our family of brands
• A culture of giving back – local volunteer opportunities, annual donation and volunteer match to eligible nonprofit organizations, and philanthropic activities to support our communities
• Medical, dental, vision insurance & 401(K)
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Time off – paid time off & holidays