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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for a Home Planner

💰 $75,000 - $115,000

RetailMerchandisingPlanningHome GoodsSupply ChainAnalytics

🎯 Role Definition

The Home Planner acts as the financial architect of our product assortment. This individual is a critical partner to the Buying and Merchandising teams, responsible for translating product vision into a profitable financial strategy. By meticulously analyzing sales data, market trends, and customer behavior, the Home Planner ensures we have the right product, in the right place, at the right time, and at the right price. This position requires a unique blend of analytical prowess, commercial acumen, and a collaborative spirit to drive sales, optimize inventory, and maximize gross margin for our entire home collection.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Associate Planner
  • Allocation Analyst
  • Assistant Buyer
  • Merchandise Assistant

Advancement To:

  • Senior Planner
  • Planning Manager
  • Director of Planning

Lateral Moves:

  • Senior Buyer / Merchant
  • E-commerce Merchandiser
  • Business Strategy Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop and manage comprehensive pre-season financial plans, including sales, gross margin, and inventory, that align with the company's top-down strategic objectives for the Home category.
  • Formulate detailed class, sub-class, and key item plans to provide a clear roadmap for the buying team and ensure a balanced and productive assortment.
  • Analyze historical data, market trends, and competitive insights to identify risks and opportunities by department, channel, and individual SKU, providing actionable recommendations to leadership.
  • Own and manage the Open-to-Buy (OTB) process for assigned categories, making strategic adjustments to receipts and inventory flow to react to business trends and maximize profitability.
  • Create and maintain robust in-season forecasts for sales and inventory at the SKU level for both core and seasonal items, continuously adjusting projections based on performance and market dynamics.
  • Collaborate closely with the buying and merchandising teams to build and refine assortment strategies, influencing product lifecycle management from initial launch to end-of-life.
  • Plan and recommend promotional pricing and markdown strategies to drive sales, optimize sell-through, and effectively manage slow-moving or excess inventory.
  • Conduct in-depth ad-hoc analysis to answer critical business questions regarding product performance, customer purchasing behavior, and assortment productivity.
  • Partner with supply chain and logistics teams to manage inbound receipt flow, ensuring timely product delivery to support sales plans and new product launches.
  • Develop and execute inventory allocation and replenishment strategies for both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar channels to optimize stock levels and minimize out-of-stocks.
  • Prepare and present weekly, monthly, and quarterly business reviews and financial summaries to senior leadership and cross-functional partners, clearly articulating performance and strategy.
  • Lead seasonal hindsight analysis, dissecting past performance to extract key learnings that will inform and improve future season strategies and financial plans.
  • Manage the entire product lifecycle, providing analysis and recommendations for product introductions, peak-season management, and end-of-life clearance or liquidation.
  • Project and manage inventory turn and GMROI (Gross Margin Return on Investment) to ensure inventory is working efficiently and meeting financial targets.
  • Build robust financial models to evaluate the potential impact of new business initiatives, new product launches, or shifts in promotional strategy.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis from cross-functional teams to provide quick, data-driven insights.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap by identifying opportunities for process improvement and new analytical tools.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate high-level data needs and business questions into specific, actionable engineering and reporting requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data and analytics teams to ensure planning priorities are represented.
  • Mentor and provide guidance to Associate Planners or Allocation Analysts, fostering their analytical skills and understanding of retail planning principles.
  • Own the inventory reconciliation process, identifying and helping resolve data discrepancies between systems to ensure a high level of data integrity.
  • Evaluate and recommend enhancements to planning systems, tools, and processes to drive greater efficiency and accuracy across the planning organization.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Advanced Microsoft Excel: Mastery of complex formulas, pivot tables, v-lookups/x-lookups, and financial modeling is essential.
  • Retail Math Acumen: Deep understanding and practical application of key retail metrics, including sales, gross margin, inventory turn, sell-through, GMROI, and IMU.
  • Merchandise Planning Systems: Proven experience with industry-standard planning software such as JDA, Oracle Retail (RPAS), Blue Yonder, Aptos, or similar enterprise systems.
  • Forecasting & Financial Modeling: Strong ability to build accurate sales and inventory forecasts from the ground up and model financial outcomes of various strategies.
  • Open-to-Buy (OTB) Management: Expertise in managing the OTB process to control inventory investment and react to in-season business trends.
  • Data Analysis & Visualization: Ability to synthesize large, complex datasets into clear, actionable insights and compelling data visualizations. Experience with BI tools like Tableau or Power BI is a plus.
  • SKU-Level Analysis: Proficient in performing detailed analysis at the item level to optimize assortment breadth and depth.

Soft Skills

  • Analytical & Strategic Mindset: A natural ability to think critically, connect disparate data points, and formulate a cohesive, long-term strategy.
  • Collaboration & Influence: Excellent interpersonal skills with a proven ability to build strong relationships and influence decisions with cross-functional partners, including Buyers, Marketing, and Supply Chain.
  • Communication & Presentation: Ability to clearly and concisely articulate complex data, strategies, and recommendations to a wide range of audiences, from peers to senior executives.
  • Problem-Solving: Proactive and resourceful in identifying and resolving issues, with a talent for untangling complex problems in a fast-paced environment.
  • Adaptability: Thrives in a dynamic retail environment, able to pivot strategies and re-prioritize tasks based on shifting trends and business needs.
  • Exceptional Attention to Detail: A high degree of accuracy and precision in all analyses, forecasts, and reports.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's Degree or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's Degree in a quantitative, business, or retail-focused discipline.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Finance / Economics
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Merchandising

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 3-5 years of direct experience in merchandise planning, inventory management, demand planning, or a highly analytical role within a retail or e-commerce organization.

Preferred:

  • Experience specifically within the home goods, furniture, home improvement, or a similar hardlines category is highly desirable.
  • Experience in a multi-channel retail environment (i.e., managing inventory for both e-commerce and physical stores) is a significant advantage.
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