Culture Kings represents the intersection of music, sport, and fashion. These three elements are the foundation pillars upon which we stand. Streetwear has evolved to become an essential part of culture, influencing each component. Our company prides itself on exclusivity and superiority, offering a premium retail experience across all genres, cultures, styles, and ages, combined with a curated range from 100+ leading street, sport, and fashion brands globally. Each Culture Kings store presents an electrifying atmosphere, unparalleled in retail, featuring daily in-store performances by some of Australia's leading DJs. Frequently visited by top athletes, artists, and tastemakers, we offer an elite perspective on the ever-changing global streetwear landscape.
The Opportunity
The role of Senior Merchandise Planner acts as a crucial link between the Head of Buying and the Planning team to maximise sales growth, stock efficiency analytics, and reporting. This position collaborates with Category Managers, Finance, Marketing, and Supply Chain to implement a strategic approach to optimising inventory, increasing margin activity, and driving sales.
Key Responsibilities
* Develop and manage seasonal merchandise budgets, forecasts, strategies, ranges, and assortment plans to achieve financial targets across all categories.
* Partner with Merchants to create customer-centric, profitable seasonal assortment plans.
* Produce hindsight analysis using historical trends to identify opportunities to drive sales, optimise margin, and turn inventory for items and key brands.
* Provide quantitative (data) and qualitative (trend) research to pre-plan seasonal assortments and promotional strategies.
* Set store strategy and review store performance, analysis, and model stocks.
* Rforecast OTB expectations for Key Brands, Channels, Regions, and Categories and identify gaps and opportunities.
* Manage and achieve critical financial targets such as sales, stock turn, OTB, sell-through, and Gross Profit.
* Manage core merchandise planning processes; range plan, buy quantity, delivery phasing, and inventory levels.
* Analyse in-season performance and manage product lifecycle through product end-of-life.
* Identify essential items and brands, analyse their performance, and sales potential.
* Recommend promotion/markdown/discounting activities to drive sales and balance inventory.
* Direct replenishment/inventory strategy for warehouse and stores.
* Responsible for forecasting capacity requirements with supply chain partners.
* Identify and implement best practices to create efficiency and consistency of work product and analysis.
* Drive and streamline processes and reporting in our connected planning solution.
* Lead and motivate team members to achieve goals through effective and consistent performance management conversations with succession plans in place.
* Collaborate with the Retail operations team in terms of range, volume, and inventory efficiency.
Skills & Experience
* Minimum 5+ years experience in a similar position, preferably within the fashion industry.
* Strong ability to interpret data and results & forecasting experience.
* Highly developed analytical skills with a solutions-focused approach.
* Impeccable attention to detail & time management skills with the ability to meet deadlines in a time-critical environment.
* Intermediate to advanced Excel skills.
* Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
* Previous experience with planning tools is a plus.