Inventory Planning Strategist

Retail Merchandising and Planning – Consultant

Accenture's Retail Merchandising and Planning practice helps the world's leading retailers reinvent how they buy, plan, allocate, and manage product across the value chain. We work at the intersection of merchandising strategy, planning process design, and AI-enabled decision making, helping clients across apparel, hardlines, grocery, and specialty retail modernize their operating models and improve performance in demand forecasting, assortment planning, and inventory productivity.

A retail merchandising and planning professional who pairs functional expertise with a strong aptitude for learning and a drive to deliver. You've built a foundation close to the buy — in category management, merchandise financial planning, assortment, allocation, replenishment, or demand/supply planning — and you understand how these functions connect end-to-end. As a Consultant, you will execute and contribute to workstreams within larger transformation engagements for retail clients, working alongside client stakeholders and Accenture leadership to develop recommendations, drive delivery, and help realize results.

Project Execution

Contribute to the delivery of a workstream within a broader transformation program, owning discrete tasks, key components of deliverables, and analyses end-to-end

Synthesize disparate data sources into insights and clear, client-ready deliverables

Work with clients to identify and interpret key project requirements

Support project planning and coordination to ensure effective, on-time delivery of client work

Produce high-quality, timely work and exhibit integrity in decisions and firm relationships

Merchandising & Planning Transformation

Support assessments of current-state merchandising, planning, and inventory management capabilities against industry-leading practices

Contribute to future-state operating model design spanning category management, merchandise financial planning, assortment planning, allocation, replenishment, demand planning, and supply planning

Support the development of capability strategies, transformation roadmaps, and value cases that quantify the impact of change

Apply sub‑industry nuance across apparel, hardlines, and/or grocery to help tailor recommendations to client‑specific dynamics

Bring current knowledge of AI, analytics, and emerging planning technologies to help identify where they can solve merchandising and planning business problems

Support clients in evaluating planning platforms and AI‑enabled decision‑making tools as part of broader transformation

Contribute to the design and delivery of GenAI‑and agentic‑enabled planning capabilities where applicable to client roadmaps

Provide merchandising and planning insights and benchmarking

Support the development and review of client‑facing summaries and analyses

Work with the team to identify and assess opportunities for value creation and performance improvement

Create and curate deliverable content (POV slides, working session prep, case studies) to capture merchandising and planning knowledge and support internal knowledge share and business development

Help aggregate and manage data and intellectual capital for ongoing benchmarking, and insight generation

Category Management, Merchandise Financial Planning (MFP), Assortment Planning, Allocation, Replenishment, Demand Planning, or Supply Planning at a Retailer

Bachelor's degree

Familiarity with the operational nuances of one or more retail sub‑industries, including apparel, hardlines, or grocery

Experience developing deliverable content

Working knowledge of current trends in technology, analytics, and AI, and how they apply to merchandising and planning business problems

Prior industry experience in Buying, Planning, or Product Development

Familiarity with leading planning platforms such as o9, Blue Yonder, Anaplan, Oracle, or RELEX

MBA or equivalent advanced degree

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