Key Responsibilities

1. Develop annual, seasonal, monthly merchandise plans aligned with business targets and the overarching merchandise strategy. Manage Open-to-Buy (OTB), procurement commitments, inventory budgets and planned receipts while tracking actual budget performance. Analyze the financial impact of sales fluctuations, pricing shifts, discounts, inventory commitments on overall profitability and provide data-backed scenarios, recommendations for corrective actions
2. Establish and maintain granular category-wise, channel-wise, Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) -level demand forecasts by analyzing historical sales, seasonality, sell-through rates, promotional trends. Monitor forecast accuracy, investigate variances between planned and actual demand, highlight emerging sales trends, demand shifts, slow-moving items to enable proactive cross-functional adjustments
3. Closely monitor inventory levels, stock cover, ageing profiles, sell-through, stock turns across all categories and channels. Formulate and execute stock allocation, replenishment, inventory rebalancing plans
4. Conduct detailed evaluations of category, style, SKU, price-point, color, and size performance to assess and improve assortment productivity. Track sales-per-option, full-price performance to identify assortment gaps, underperforming products, opportunities for replenishment or range rationalization, supporting buying teams with robust data
5. Produce comprehensive weekly, monthly, seasonal performance reports, dashboards, variance analyses covering sales, margins, inventory, markdowns. Maintain advanced Excel-based planning models and inventory trackers, delivering timely, accurate insights to leadership while tracking the impact of corrective interventions
6. Execute established planning calendars, review mechanisms, governance processes. Coordinate seamlessly with merchandising, sourcing, supply chain, warehouse, finance, sales, retail operations, and E-commerce teams to ensure complete alignment of merchandise plans, procurement requirements, and execution workflows

Ideal Candidate

1. Graduate or postgraduate degree in Business Administration, Retail Management, Fashion Management, or a related discipline
2. 7–9 years of relevant experience in merchandise planning, retail planning, inventory planning, preferably in apparel or lifestyle retail
3. Strong working knowledge of merchandise financial planning, OTB, demand forecasting, inventory management, and retail KPIs
4. Experience in dealer, franchisee, or multi-store retail planning is desirable
5. Advanced proficiency in MS Excel/Google sheets, including financial modelling, PivotTables, and scenario analysis