Retail Planner

• Job Location: Lebanon
• Job Category: Other
• Employment Type: Employee
• Job Duration: Full Time

Department: Commercial Procurement
Job Status: Full Timer
Working Hours: Monday till Friday
 From 9:00 am till 18:00 pm
Location:    Head Office - Zalka
 
Relationship Span:
Within Mike Sport: Retail Dpt., Wholesale Unit, Inventory & LP Dpt., Marketing Dpt., Accounting & Finance Dpt., Warehouse Dpt. 
Outside Mike Sport: N/A

About Us
For over 30 years we have built a powerful wholesale, retail, and E-commerce business, combined with a successful distribution channel. 
Mike Sport has strengthened its footprint for major key accounts with its Lifestyle, Outdoor, Performance, and Technical categories. 
Our operations are spread across the EMEA region with our headquarters and central operations located in Beirut, Lebanon.

SCOPE OF THE JOB
The Retail Planner is responsible for analyzing sales data, forecasting demand, managing inventory, and developing strategies and financial forecasts for a segment of the business. The goal is to optimize company sales growth, inventory turnover, and profitability by working closely with cross-functional teams to align merchandise planning, purchasing, and operational objectives on designing and implementing thoughtful inventory strategies that promote profitable sales growth and satisfy customer demand.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Leadership & Managerial:
    Manage P&L for Commercial dpt. By Brand & Measure store performance for a high sales-per-square-foot number and efficiency in driving sales.

Strategy & Budgeting:
    Develop and drive seasonal sale strategy and potential liquidation events.
    Analyze sales performance, product performance, and inventory data to identify trends, opportunities, and risks.
    Utilize industry knowledge and compare sales data to develop accurate sales forecasts for different product categories.
    Maintain in-season product plans and forecasts and collaborate with the team to execute top-down and bottom-up roles of individual SKUs and styles.
    Develop effective pricing strategies, and select appropriate product mix. 
    Balance the need for profitability with competitive pricing and promotional activities.
    Provide insights and recommendations to improve sales and profitability.
    Create allocation strategies based on seasonality, trend, store capacity, and inventory.
    Analyze the business in collaboration with the buying team and stores to maximize sales and stock opportunities, to create and maintain seasonal assortment plans and category sales plans.
    Identify the best sellers and slow-moving items in a timely manner and work with the buyers to actively manage inventory levels. This includes planning backup orders on key core items, adjusting product flow when needed, inventory management and recommending orders, increasing/decreasing inventory, and/or canceling orders.
    Communicate inventory plans, sales forecasts, and performance updates to relevant stakeholders.
    Track open-to-buy purchase budget.
    Plan and develop the inventory strategy to deliver sales and gross profit targets.
    Collaborate with merchant and planning partners to develop yearly sales, margin, and product turn plans and recommend divisional and departmental sales growth to drive business strategies.
    Assist in developing the assigned department's budgets, sales targets, assortment plans, and financial goals.
    Work with merchandising and buying teams to create well-balanced and attractive product assortments that align with customer preferences and company strategies.
    Develop a recap business analysis in order to partner with the buying team, create strategies, drive sales, and achieve gross margin profitability.
Execution:
    Monitor inventory to ensure optimal stock levels that meet customer demand.
    Collaborate with buying and merchandising teams to plan and allocate inventory based on sales projections and seasonal trends.
    Develop, maintain, and update tools, reports, and ad-hoc and benchmark analyses, to support the needs of the business.
    Support Pop-Up, On-the-Road, and new store openings by ordering and managing product inventory.
    Ensure a healthy balance of inventory and propose a promotional sale for old inventory.
    Coordinate with sales and marketing to consolidate Historical sales data analysis with commercial team inputs.
    Manage inventory flow of goods to support sales and product turn for a portion of a product category as assigned. 
    Launch new products and categories at the stores and ensure timely replenishment.
    Allocate inventory to different store locations or distribution centers based on factors like sales potential, store size, and geographical factors. Optimize product availability across the retail network.
    Collaborate with cross-functional teams, such as Buying, Back Office Unit, Marketing, and Operations to align inventory plans with marketing strategies and objectives, promotions, and events.

Reporting & forecasting:
    Develop seasonal, monthly, and weekly merchandise plans with the team and forecasts for sales, inventory, markdowns, and gross margin vs last year vs target to maximize opportunities and minimize risk.
    Analyze historical sales data and current market trends to forecast future sales and demand for products.
    Develop, review, and analyze weekly product/brand reports for merchandising and planning strategies.
    Track TOs, POs, SOs, and PROs and make sure that they are finalized properly and in a timely manner.
    Produce weekly/monthly reports recapping sales, inventory, and gross margin at different levels and dimensions and identifying risks and opportunities.
    Forecast and validate projections to ensure sales, gross margin, and inventory objectives are being met.
    Prepare and conduct seasonal hindsight reviews with the product team; deliver all requested product selling data to support design meetings as well as vendor development.
    Control the product allocations, distribution, and replenishment to all channels.
    Prepare regular reports and analyses of the key performance indicators (KPIs), sales trends, and inventory metrics.

COMPETENICES    
Executive & Leadership presence
Developing & Motivating others
Driving & Achieving Results    
Customer Obsessed     
Commercial Understanding    
Pro-activeness & Innovation    
Communication & Presentation Skills    

JOB REQUIREMENTS
    Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management or equivalent degree.
    Experience:  2+ years of experience in the field, Retail planner experience is a plus.
    Linguistic Skills: Advanced in written & spoken English & Arabic, French is a plus.
    Computer Skills: Extensive knowledge of Ms. Office.
    Retail KPIs and reporting skills are a must.