Assortment Planning Assistant / Specialist

🛍️ We're Hiring: Assortment Planning Assistant / Specialist📍 Location: United Arab Emirates (Remote) 🕒 Employment Type: Full-Time 💼 Experience Level: Entry-Level to Mid-Level 🌐 Work Arrangement: Fully RemoteAbout UsWe are a commercially driven organization focused on building customer-relevant assortments, profitable product portfolios, strong inventory productivity, and data-driven retail decisions.Our teams collaborate across Assortment Planning, Merchandise Planning, Buying, Merchandising, Product, Sales, Marketing, Demand Planning, Inventory, Supply Chain, Finance, and Retail Operations to ensure the right products are offered to customers in the right channels, locations, quantities, and time periods.The RoleWe are seeking an Assortment Planning Assistant / Specialist to support the development, analysis, implementation, and optimization of product assortments across retail channels and locations.The successful candidate will help analyze sales, inventory, customer demand, product performance, margins, pricing, product lifecycle, and market trends to ensure assortments are commercially relevant and aligned with inventory and financial objectives.Key ResponsibilitiesSupport the development and execution of assortment-planning strategies.Assist Assortment Planners and Merchandise Managers with seasonal and annual assortment planning.Analyze product, category, customer, store, channel, and market performance.Support decisions regarding product selection, product breadth, product depth, and SKU productivity.Maintain assortment-planning calendars and deadlines.Coordinate assortment activities across Buying, Merchandising, Planning, Sales, Marketing, Inventory, Supply Chain, and Retail Operations.Prepare assortment-planning reports, analyses, presentations, and dashboards.Support category and product reviews.Analyze historical sales performance by SKU, category, brand, store, channel, region, and customer segment.Identify best-selling, slow-moving, declining, emerging, and underperforming products.Analyze sales trends, seasonality, product lifecycle, customer preferences, and market developments.Identify opportunities to expand, reduce, replace, or rebalance product assortments.Support new-product introduction decisions.Analyze sales potential, customer demand, product positioning, pricing, margins, and inventory requirements.Support product-launch assortment plans.Track launch performance against expectations.Identify underperforming new products and recommend corrective actions.Support product lifecycle management.Monitor products from launch through growth, maturity, decline, and discontinuation.Identify products approaching end-of-life.Support phase-out and replacement planning.Coordinate with Buying, Product, Inventory, and Sales teams on product exits.Support seasonal assortment planning.Analyze prior-season performance.Identify seasonal winners and underperformers.Recommend seasonal product quantities and assortment changes.Incorporate seasonal demand, holidays, promotions, weather, events, and market trends where relevant.Support seasonal launch and exit timelines.Assist with assortment architecture.Define product categories, subcategories, price points, styles, colors, sizes, features, and other relevant assortment dimensions.Analyze assortment gaps and duplication.Identify opportunities to improve product coverage.Support category hierarchy and SKU rationalization.Assist with SKU rationalization.Identify low-productivity SKUs.Analyze sales, margin, inventory, customer demand, and strategic relevance before recommending SKU changes.Support decisions to discontinue, consolidate, replace, or maintain products.Monitor SKU productivity after assortment changes.Support assortment localization.Analyze product performance by store, region, customer segment, climate, market, and channel.Identify differences in local customer preferences.Support localized assortment recommendations.Adjust product breadth and depth based on location-specific demand.Coordinate with Retail Operations and Store teams on localized assortment requirements.Support store-cluster assortment planning.Group stores based on sales potential, customer profile, location, size, format, demographics, and product demand.Develop differentiated assortment recommendations for store clusters.Monitor performance by store cluster.Identify opportunities to rebalance assortments between locations.Support channel-specific assortment planning.Analyze differences between physical stores, e-commerce, marketplaces, wholesale, and other channels.Recommend appropriate products by channel.Support omnichannel assortment strategies.Monitor online versus offline product performance.Identify opportunities for cross-channel assortment optimization.Analyze product demand and customer behavior.Review sales history and customer purchasing patterns.Analyze basket behavior, product affinity, repeat purchases, and category penetration where data is available.Identify emerging customer preferences.Support customer segmentation and assortment recommendations.Use market and competitor information to inform assortment decisions.Monitor competitor products, pricing, launches, promotions, brands, and assortment breadth.Conduct product and market research.Prepare competitor assortment comparisons.Identify market gaps and opportunities.Support commercial and merchandising teams with relevant market intelligence.Analyze pricing and product-positioning information.Review product prices across categories and channels.Analyze price points and price architecture.Identify gaps in entry-level, mid-range, premium, and other relevant price tiers.Support price-positioning decisions.Analyze promotional performance.Review product sales before, during, and after promotions.Evaluate promotional uplift, margin impact, inventory movement, and customer response.Identify products suitable for future promotional activity.Support assortment decisions linked to promotional calendars.Coordinate with Marketing and Merchandising teams.Support margin and profitability analysis.Analyze product cost, selling price, discounts, gross margin, and contribution where applicable.Identify low-margin and high-margin products.Support decisions that balance sales growth with profitability.Monitor margin performance following assortment changes.Support inventory planning.Coordinate with Demand Planning and Inventory teams to align assortment decisions with inventory availability.Identify products with excessive inventory or constrained supply.Ensure assortment recommendations consider lead times, minimum order quantities, supplier constraints, and inventory objectives.Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)Performance will be measured through a combination of commercial, product, inventory, customer, and planning KPIs, including:Sales growthGross-margin performanceSKU productivitySell-through rateFull-price sell-throughInventory turnoverStock coverStockout rateExcess inventoryObsolete inventoryAssortment productivityCategory productivityProduct contributionGross-margin return on inventoryNew-product performanceNew-product launch successSKU rationalizationProduct lifecycle complianceAssortment-plan accuracyAssortment implementation accuracyForecast accuracyForecast biasPromotional upliftPrice-point coverageStore-cluster performanceChannel performanceAssortment localization effectivenessProduct availabilityInventory productivityWorking-capital efficiencyAssortment-review completionPlanning-cycle adherenceData accuracyStakeholder satisfactionCandidate ProfileThe successful candidate should have experience or strong academic exposure in assortment planning, merchandise planning, retail planning, buying, merchandising, demand planning, inventory management, commercial analysis, or a closely related discipline.This role is suitable for an analytical and commercially minded professional who can translate product and customer data into clear assortment recommendations and actionable business decisions.What You'll BringExperience in retail planning, merchandising, buying, category management, inventory, sales analysis, or a related field is advantageous.Strong understanding of retail products, categories, customers, and commercial performance.Strong analytical and numerical skills.Ability to analyze SKU-level sales and inventory data.Understanding of assortment breadth, depth, SKU productivity, and product lifecycle principles.Good understanding of retail KPIs such as sell-through, stock cover, inventory turnover, gross margin, and sales productivity.Strong Microsoft Excel skills, including PivotTables, lookup functions, and data analysis.Experience with merchandise-planning, ERP, retail, inventory, or BI systems is advantageous.Experience with Power BI, Tableau, SQL, Python, or advanced analytics is advantageous.Strong attention to detail.Strong market-research and competitor-analysis skills.Good commercial judgment.Strong problem-solving capabilities.Excellent communication and presentation skills.Ability to turn complex data into concise recommendations.Strong organizational and project-coordination skills.Ability to manage multiple deadlines.Strong cross-functional collaboration skills.Ability to work independently and effectively within a fully remote environment.Relevant diploma or degree in Retail Management, Business Administration, Merchandising, Marketing, Fashion, Supply Chain, Economics, Finance, Data Analytics, or a related discipline.Retail, merchandising, planning, or analytics certifications are advantageous.Knowledge of UAE/GCC retail markets and consumer behavior is advantageous.Arabic language proficiency is advantageous.