Merchandise Planner, Retail (TNF)

Now that you’ve found the job description, what’s next? 

At The North Face we dare to lead the world forward through Exploration. We were born to Explore, Disrupt and to Lead. We were born to Love Wild Places and to Spark Curiosity. We believe that exploration is a mindset - both on the mountain and off the mountain - and it infuses everything we do. As a community of explorers, we stay curious about new ideas, places, and people. 

So, before we get to the job details, take a minute to learn a little more about us – our values and our culture. If you can see yourself working side-by-side with a team of adventure-loving people, The North Face just may be the place for you.  

To learn more about our values and our culture, visit The North Face Careers or www.thenorthface.com.  

What will you do? 

A day in the life of a DTC Senior Merchandise Planner at The North Face looks a little like this. 

You will play an integral role in driving the success of our business by developing and implementing merchandise OTB and in-season assortment plans that maximize sales, gross profit, inventory turns, and sku productivity for specific categories. You will manage the OTB and collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to ensure that inventory levels are optimized and aligned with market demand. This is an exciting opportunity for an analytical thinker with a deep understanding of the retail industry and passion for building consumer-centric strategies.

Key KPI’s:

• Sales
• Gross Margin
• POS Markdown
• Permanent Markdown
• BOP and EOP Inventory
• Sell-Thru
• Inventory Turn
• OTB and Historical Variance
• Sku Productivity

Let’s break down that day-in-the-life a bit more. 

• Build pre-season financial plans inclusive of sales, gross margin, POS markdown rate, and inventory at a weekly, monthly and category level that tie to the companies’ budgeted sales, gross margin, and inventory days goals.
• Develop strong partnerships with merchant organization to understand the assortment vision and inform the buy strategy, as well as provide critical analytical support to improve year-over-year performance and customer satisfaction.
• Analyze sku productivity and make recommendations on assortment breadth, depth, flow and mix to drive profitability.
• Build and analyze seasonal category size curves, considering presentation and consumer expectation, whilst delivering improved sell thrus.
• Manage demand signal for seasonal/fashion buys to ensure Supply Planning partners purchase intended sizes and quantities.
• Maintain OTB- forecast sales, gross margin, POS markdown rate, and inventory turn by week/month at a department/class level. Communicate business performance and actions required to stay on target during weekly business reviews and monthly OTB meetings.
• Quantify in-season risks and opportunities at the department, class, and style color size level making recommendations to improve sales and sell thru including markdown, promotional and exit strategies, as well as assortment adds and transfers-in.
• Responsible for in-season analysis, hind sighting, and weekly business reporting.
• Responsible for maintaining the in-season or fashion assortment sheet. Partner with visual merchandising and allocation analysts to ensure that monthly floor sets and style/collection distributions are aligned with assortment strategy.

What do you need to succeed? 

We all have unique skills that we bring to work and celebrate every day. For this role, there are foundation skill