Inventory Planner-Zales

Job Title

This role is responsible for SKU forecasting, order management, system maintenance and development and execution of inventory strategies to increase productivity and maximize sales, margin and inventory efficiency in area of responsibility within Zales, Zales Outlet and Zales.com

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with category Merchants and Merchandise Planner to develop and present seasonal hindsight that synthesizes product performance learnings, consumer and customer insights and product development initiatives into department level pre-season strategies that inform future merchandise plans and tactics
• Partner with category Merchants and Merchandise Planner to execute a successful Go-to-Market plan that supports category initiatives successfully achieving and exceeding plan
• Partner with Merchant and Merchandise Planning partners to enable the pre-season assortment architecture processes including SKU rationalization and SKU lifecycle management that result in achieving healthy SKU productivity targets
• Partner with Merchant and Merchandise Planner to recommend initial buy quantities and store groupings for test merchandise, opportunity buys, and new collections.
• Inform the Open-to-Buy process to optimize inventory investments to yield sales and gross margin at or above plan. Confidently recommend actions, risks, and opportunities.
• Own order management process including vendor forecasts and managing order quantities for replenishment at the SKU level to drive optimal in-stock and inventory turn
• Become an Impact Analytics subject matter expert, our demand and allocation system, and own system parameters to drive optimal in-stock and sales and margin store outcomes while maintaining inventory productivity
• Lead in-season performance reporting at the SKU and store levels to track product performance to pre-season plans and strategies
• Present in-season insights, drivers of variance to plans/strategies to Merchandise Planner, Merchant and Zales leadership teams with recommendations and decision points/action items
• Take an analytical approach to identify demographic, regional and store opportunities to optimize assortment and inventory efficiency and financial results. Advocate for and execute store re-ranking process to achieve store opportunities.
• Utilize analytical approach to recommend and execute reverse flow projects to improve productivity and achieve inventory goals
• Demonstrate creative problem-solving skills and financially sound judgement to deliver recommendations to functional and cross-functional Directors and above.
• Be a champion for change management by implementing new tools, processes, and ideas; Provide leadership to planning peers by training, mentoring, and encouraging adoption to change.