Merchandise Planning Assistant / Specialist

🛍️ We're Hiring: Merchandise 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 delivering customer-relevant assortments, healthy inventory levels, profitable sales growth, and disciplined merchandise planning across our retail channels.Our teams collaborate across Merchandise Planning, Assortment Planning, Buying, Merchandising, Category Management, Demand Planning, Inventory, Supply Chain, Finance, Sales, Marketing, E-commerce, and Retail Operations to ensure the right merchandise is available in the right quantities, channels, locations, and time periods.The RoleWe are seeking a Merchandise Planning Assistant / Specialist to support merchandise financial planning, sales forecasting, inventory planning, assortment analysis, open-to-buy management, allocation support, and merchandise-performance reporting.The successful candidate will use sales, inventory, margin, demand, assortment, and market data to support commercially sound decisions and help balance sales growth, profitability, inventory productivity, and customer availability.Key ResponsibilitiesSupport the development and execution of merchandise-planning activities.Assist Merchandise Planners and Planning Managers with annual, seasonal, quarterly, and monthly planning cycles.Maintain merchandise-planning calendars and deadlines.Coordinate planning activities with Buying, Merchandising, Assortment Planning, Category Management, Inventory, Demand Planning, Supply Chain, Finance, Sales, and Retail Operations.Prepare merchandise-planning reports, dashboards, presentations, and analysis.Support merchandise financial planning.Prepare sales, margin, inventory, and purchase plans.Analyze historical performance and current business trends.Compare actual results against budgets, plans, forecasts, and prior periods.Identify significant variances and recommend corrective actions.Support annual and seasonal merchandise budgets.Assist with financial targets for sales, gross margin, inventory, markdowns, and purchases.Maintain planning assumptions and supporting documentation.Support open-to-buy management.Monitor planned purchases against available budgets.Track committed, received, and outstanding purchase values.Monitor open-to-buy balances.Identify potential over- or under-buying situations.Coordinate with Buying teams to ensure purchases remain aligned with financial plans.Escalate significant OTB variances.Support sales forecasting.Analyze historical sales by category, SKU, brand, store, channel, region, and season.Develop or maintain sales forecasts under established planning frameworks.Incorporate seasonality, promotions, product launches, market trends, and product lifecycle into forecasts.Compare forecast results with actual performance.Analyze forecast variance and bias.Recommend adjustments to future forecasts.Support weekly and monthly forecast updates.Support merchandise inventory planning.Monitor inventory levels and stock cover.Analyze inventory relative to sales plans.Identify excess inventory, understock, and stockout risks.Monitor inventory productivity.Support inventory-reduction and rebalancing initiatives.Coordinate with Inventory and Supply Chain teams.Support stock allocation.Analyze sales potential and inventory requirements by store, channel, region, or customer segment.Prepare allocation recommendations where applicable.Monitor sell-through after allocation.Identify opportunities for replenishment, transfer, or reallocation.Support store-cluster planning.Analyze store performance and customer demand.Group stores based on sales potential, size, location, customer profile, and product requirements.Support differentiated merchandise plans by store cluster.Monitor performance by store group.Support assortment planning.Analyze planned assortments against financial and inventory objectives.Review SKU counts, product breadth, product depth, and category mix.Identify assortment gaps and duplication.Coordinate with Assortment Planning and Category Management.Support new-product planning.Incorporate product launches into sales and inventory plans.Track launch assumptions and actual performance.Identify underperforming new products.Adjust forecasts and inventory plans based on actual results.Support product lifecycle planning.Monitor products approaching maturity, decline, phase-out, or discontinuation.Adjust sales and inventory plans accordingly.Coordinate exit plans with Buying, Merchandising, Inventory, and Supply Chain.Support seasonal merchandise planning.Analyze previous-season sales and inventory performance.Identify seasonal winners and underperformers.Develop seasonal planning assumptions.Incorporate holidays, events, weather patterns, promotional calendars, and market trends where relevant.Monitor seasonal performance throughout the selling period.Conduct post-season analysis.Support markdown planning.Identify products requiring markdown action based on sales, stock levels, lifecycle, seasonality, and inventory targets.Analyze potential markdown impact on sales, margin, and inventory.Support markdown recommendations.Monitor markdown performance.Track sell-through following markdown activity.Support clearance and end-of-season inventory planning.Support inventory aging analysis.Identify slow-moving and aged products.Monitor inventory age by category, SKU, store, and channel.Recommend actions such as markdowns, transfers, promotions, returns, or assortment changes.Track aged-inventory reduction.Support margin planning.Monitor planned and actual gross margins.Analyze margin variance.Consider purchase costs, selling prices, discounts, promotions, markdowns, rebates, and other commercial factors.Identify margin risks.Support margin-improvement initiatives.Coordinate with Finance, Buying, and Merchandising.Support purchase planning.Analyze purchase requirements based on sales forecasts, inventory targets, lead times, and planned assortment changes.Support buy plans and purchase recommendations.Consider supplier lead times, minimum order quantities, order constraints, and delivery schedules.Coordinate with Buying and Procurement teams.Monitor purchase commitments against plans.Track purchase-order performance.Support supplier and delivery planning.Monitor expected delivery dates and quantities.Identify potential delays affecting merchandise plans.Coordinate with Buying, Procurement, Logistics, and Supply Chain.Escalate material supply risks.Support merchandise flow planning.Monitor inventory movement from suppliers to distribution centers, stores, and customers.Identify bottlenecks and availability issues.Support transfer and replenishment decisions.Analyze inventory flow against sales requirements.Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)Performance will be measured through a combination of financial, sales, inventory, forecasting, and planning KPIs, including:Sales-plan achievementSales forecast accuracyForecast biasGross-margin performanceGross-margin forecast accuracyOpen-to-buy accuracyOpen-to-buy utilizationInventory-plan accuracyInventory turnoverStock coverSell-through rateStockout rateExcess inventoryAged inventoryObsolete inventoryMarkdown rateMarkdown effectivenessFull-price sell-throughPurchase-plan accuracyPurchase commitment adherenceInventory productivityProduct availabilityAllocation accuracyReplenishment effectivenessNew-product performanceSeasonal-plan accuracyAssortment productivityWorking-capital efficiencyMerchandise-plan completionReporting accuracyPlanning-cycle adherenceAction-item closureStakeholder satisfactionCandidate ProfileThe successful candidate should have experience or strong academic exposure in merchandise planning, retail planning, assortment planning, category management, buying, inventory planning, demand planning, commercial analysis, or a closely related discipline.This role is suitable for an analytical and commercially minded professional who enjoys working with numbers, forecasts, inventory, products, and financial plans and can turn data into actionable merchandise decisions.What You'll BringExperience in merchandise planning, retail planning, inventory, buying, merchandising, demand planning, or commercial analysis is advantageous.Strong understanding of retail and merchandise-planning principles.Strong numerical and analytical skills.Ability to work with SKU-level sales and inventory data.Understanding of sales forecasting, inventory planning, OTB, sell-through, stock cover, and margin concepts.Strong Microsoft Excel skills, including PivotTables, lookup functions, formulas, and data analysis.Experience with merchandise-planning, ERP, inventory, retail, or BI systems is advantageous.Experience with Power BI, Tableau, SQL, Python, or advanced analytics is advantageous.Strong financial and commercial awareness.Excellent attention to detail.Strong problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.Ability to identify trends, exceptions, and risks in large datasets.Ability to communicate analytical findings clearly.Strong presentation and reporting capabilities.Good organizational and project-management skills.Ability to manage multiple deadlines and planning cycles.Strong cross-functional collaboration skills.Ability to work independently and effectively within a fully remote environment.Relevant diploma or degree in Business Administration, Retail Management, Merchandising, Supply Chain, Finance, Economics, Mathematics, Data Analytics, or a related discipline.Professional qualifications such as CIPS, CPIM, CSCP, or relevant retail-planning certifications are advantageous.Knowledge of UAE/GCC retail markets and seasonal trading patterns is advantageous.Arabic language proficiency is advantageous.