About the Role
As the Manager Assortment Planning, you will be responsible for developing and executing customer-centric product assortments across store clusters to drive sales, profitability, and inventory productivity. This role plays a key part in shaping the product strategy across multiple categories, ensuring the right mix of styles, sizes, and price points are available in each store environment.
You will work cross-functionally with Buying, Planning, Supply Chain, Visual Merchandising, and Retail Operations to ensure cohesive and high-performing assortments. Combining analytical insights with market understanding, you will help deliver an optimized, localized product offer tailored to store profiles and regional customer needs.
This role offers the opportunity to influence end-to-end assortment strategy, enhance business performance, and play a pivotal part in delivering a seamless customer experience across a fast-paced retail network.
Key Responsibilities
Assortment Strategy & Planning
- Develop and implement seasonal assortment strategies aligned with merchandise and financial plans.
- Define assortment breadth (styles) and depth (units per style) across store clusters and channels.
- Lead cluster-based planning based on store profile, size, and consumer demographics.
- Ensure assortments reflect brand positioning, customer preferences, and market opportunities.
Business & Financial Performance
- Partner with Planning teams to achieve sales, margin, and inventory productivity targets.
- Monitor weekly/monthly performance to identify risks, opportunities, and required actions.
- Support in-season forecasting, reallocation, and stock optimization to maximize full-price sell-through.
- Ensure assortments contribute effectively to inventory turn and aged stock reduction.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with Buying, Planning, Space Planning, VM, and Retail Operations to deliver cohesive assortments.
- Partner with Supply Chain and Allocation teams to ensure balanced inventory flow and timely product delivery.
- Integrate individual category strategies into one unified assortment per cluster, avoiding duplication and gaps.
- Align cluster strategies with total store objectives for a consistent consumer experience.
Market & Consumer Insights
- Analyze store-level and regional performance to identify trends, bestsellers, and assortment gaps.
- Conduct competitive and market research to ensure product relevance and differentiation.
- Provide insights that influence future buying, clustering, and product development decisions.
Leadership & People Development
- Manage and mentor a team of assortment planners or analysts.
- Build a collaborative, analytical, and solution-oriented team culture.
- Partner with retail and merchandising leaders to ensure local market needs are reflected in assortments.
Requirements and Qualification
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Retail Management, or related field.
- 57 years of experience in merchandising, assortment planning, or retail planning, with exposure to multi-category retail.
- Proven experience in assortment optimization, clustering, and retail analytics.
- Strong analytical and financial acumen with proficiency in planning systems (SAP, Oracle RPAS, or similar).
- Advanced Excel skills and strong command of analytical tools.
- Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and presentation skills.
- Strong collaboration capability and ability to influence cross-functional teams.
- Passion for retail, consumer trends, and delivering an elevated customer experience.
