Retail Merchandise Planner

The Paper Store is committed to being the premiere destination for all of our customer’s gift-giving needs. Our mission is to share our passion for The Paper Store with each customer, during each visit, by going above and beyond their expectations for both selection and service.

The Retail Merchandise Planner is responsible for the development of sales forecasts and inventory plans for their classification(s) and/or department(s). This position is accountable for providing analyses to improve profitability by identifying opportunities and risks at a granular level. The Merchandise planner will be highly collaborative with director(s) of planning to ensure that objectives are met at a higher level. They will also collaborate with the merchandising team to review classification performance and upcoming strategies.

The Retail Merchandise Planner reports directly to the Director of Planning.

COMPETENCIES:

• Accountability: Demonstrates a sense of corporate responsibility. Takes personal ownership and responsibility for the quality and timeliness of work. Ensures that actions are consistent with words.
• Communication: Communicates information with consistency and clarity; uses active listening to effectively understand and provide feedback. Adjusts communication style to suit the audience to promote engagement and increase understanding.
• Creativity and Initiative: Forward-thinking, recognizes opportunities and finds new ways of doing things and implements improvements whenever possible. Encourages creativity and innovation.
• Professionalism: Maintains a professional and positive manner even under changing or uncertain conditions. Works well with a wide range of individuals to provide support, encouragement and direction. Engages others to accomplish organizational and departmental goals. Is seen as a role model.
• Personal Development: Displays self-awareness, a high level of energy, persistence and a positive outlook. Continuously seeks ways to improve and learns from mistakes and constructive feedback.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Be a TPS brand ambassador
• Develop sales forecasts, inventory plans, and margin goals for their classifications. Able to communicate these plans clearly to merchandising partners and planning management
• OTB forecasting/re-forecasting at a monthly level to reflect current classification trends
• Identify risks and opportunities within classification and use both high level and granular analytics to support potential profitable solutions/ideas
• Develop key item plans for sales and inventory utilizing history and lost sales to identify growth opportunities
• Expert on classification level and product performance within those classifications
• Support director(s) in creation of pre-season item or classification level plans to align with top-level category plans by providing insight into current trends, historical analytics or related categories
• Monitor weekly sales performance/trends to react to in-season product and business needs
• Provide ad-hoc analysis to support director(s) and merchandising team on in-season item level forecasts
• Provide weekly analytics on markdowns, seasonal performance, and top performing categories and skus
• Provide recaps on key occasions and events for use in future planning processes
• Support the training and on-boarding of new planning team members
• Analyze product performance & pricing to make thoughtful recommendations to ensure financial targets are met (sales, gross margin)

JOB REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor’s Degree
• 3-5 years of experience in planning including knowledge of buying and allocation

• Possess a strong sense of urgency and a high level of attention to detail.
• Able to think independently and objectively to develop well-thought-out strategies based on both quantitative and qualitative data
• Highly proficient in Microsoft Excel
• Strong Communication skills; provide clear direction and ideas
• Able to work in an extremely collaborative environment
• Strong organizational and time management skills with the ability to work under pressure and adapt to changing priorities and directions
• Ability to work 3 days/week at the Corporate Office in Acton, MA
• Professional presentation in attire, demeanor, and appearance

The Paper Store is an equal-opportunity employer and considers all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, age, veteran status, or any other classification protected by state, local or federal law.