Career Opportunity
Associate Planner
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Company Description
At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all. We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.
Position Overview
Responsible for developing and presenting annual merchandise financial plans and seasonal Open to Buy; forecasting business based on changes in strategies or business climate and managing inventory to support updated forecasts.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
Key Responsibilities
- Assist bottoms-up sales and receipt plan by door that will validate and tie back to target budget/LRP by region, and total APAC
- Assist receipt flow targets by label for buying, and recommend in-season adjustments in delivery plans based on business trends.
- Participate in Monthly Forecast Reviews.
- Participate in all preseason merchandising meetings and workshops in NY to understand merchandise direction, fashion flow and rig selection. (as applicable)
- Determine target class penetration mix, initial season projections, and influence the development the Scorecard based on style selling analysis and market knowledge
- Maintain door profiles and volume cluster rankings which incorporate climate needs by region.
- Assist / Develop a seasonal blank line plan that takes into account target class mix, receipt flow, fashion %.
- Participate in Adoption and Line openings when applicable to review content of the Line against planned SKU/unit requirements and convey all product needs.
- Apply regional product rankings to Line Plan, balance assortments and make any callouts.
- Develop awareness of major competitors and analyze effectiveness of assortments.
- Convey to Buying team all relevant learning to help refine assortments.
- Review key business reports to measure assortment planning effectiveness (ST analysis, sales to stock, concept selling, etc)
- Develop/maintain consistent format for and deliver sales trend reports
- Review key business reports to measure assortment planning effectiveness and as basis for future season planning
Experience, Skills & Knowledge
Requirements
- Degree holder in Textile, Merchandising, Retail or related discipline
- Strong computer skills including Excel, Word and merchandise planning system
- 3 to 5 years planning / allocation related experience. At least 5 years of managerial experience for Senior level
- Experience in fashion apparel industry preferred
- Excellent analytical and problem solving skills
- Strong communication and presentations skills on financial information and business strategies
- Strong leadership and negotiation skills