Category Assortment Planner

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The Category Assortment Planner is responsible for developing and executing category assortment plans that align with the company's overall strategy and goals. This role involves analyzing market trends, consumer preferences, and sales data to create optimized product assortments that maximize sales, profitability, and customer satisfaction. The Category Assortment Planner works closely with merchandising, buying, marketing, and supply chain teams to ensure a cohesive and effective product offering.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Assortment Planning:
  • Develop comprehensive category assortment plans based on market analysis, sales data, and consumer trends.
    • Identify product gaps and opportunities within the current assortment.
    • Collaborate with buyers and merchandisers to select products that align with the company's strategic objectives.
    • Balance the mix of products to ensure a diverse and appealing assortment for customers.
    • Conduct and deliver space to sales analytics to deliver on shelf availability customer metrics, inclusive of item capacity and inventory management.  
    • Build physical test sets to showcase changes at shelf.
    • Produce core planogram recommendations.
    • Project governance of category transition milestones
• Market Analysis:
  • Facilitate implementation of market research to understand industry trends, competitive landscape, and customer preferences.
    • Familiar with data solutions such as Nielsen, IRI, dunnhumby and Placr. Ai.
  • Analyze household performance data to identify top-performing products and categories.
  • Monitor and report on market changes that could impact product assortment.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration:
  • Effectively manage key milestones of transition planning with buying partners.
  • Skilled at delivering feedback and navigating thoughtful conversations.
  • Partner with buying team to enable customer centric assortments; delivering against company OSA metrics set forth by senior management.
  • Work closely with marketing teams to support promotional strategies that support the assortment plan.
  • Partner with supply chain teams to ensure timely and efficient product delivery.
  • Coordinate with visual merchandising to ensure in-store and online displays align with the assortment strategy.
• Performance Analysis:
  • Track and analyze the performance of the assortment plan including sales, margin, and inventory metrics.
  • Make data-driven recommendations for adjustments to the assortment plan based on performance analysis.
  • Prepare and present regular reports on assortment performance to senior management

What You'll Be Doing:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Merchandising, or a related field.
• 3+ years of experience in merchandising, buying, or category management.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret sales data and market trends.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Proficiency in assortment planning and merchandising software.
• Demonstrated strength at presentation to varying levels of leadership.
• Detail-oriented with strong organizational and project management skills.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and manage multiple priorities.
• Preferred Qualifications:
  • Experience in the retail industry, preferably in a similar category planning role.
  • Knowledge of consumer behavior and retail market dynamics.
  • Advanced proficiency in Excel and other data analysis tools.
  • Experience with omnichannel retail strategies.