Job Description

Introduction:

Reporting to the Head of E commence SEA, this role will be responsible for delivering a buy strategy per season and building the most profitable, balanced, customer focused range for the country which reflects the our client lifestyle Brand Strategy and supports any key country strategies.

Responsibilities:

Accountable for managing the in-season trading of the business in a way where inventory is managed efficiently and required trading decisions are made and communicated to stakeholders

1. Execution of seasonal E commence buy

• Execute seasonal buy in accordance with OTB & Budget

• Define assortment based on market/ platform/ customer profile, participate in seasonal preline/ kickoff/ tradeshow meetings to ensure product relevance

• Ensure timely submission of seasonal orders

• Manage the right product mix with targeted division/product category in mind

• Ensure the buy based on analysis of the historical data/sell through

• Define product strategy by sales channel to achieve optimal sell through results

• Deliver seasonal line to ensure gross margin, sell through performance and healthy stocks inventory

• Review seasonal collection performance vs expectations and in analysing consumer buying patterns, predicting future trends

Effective and efficient in-season rollout

• Collaborate with offline & E - COM Content team to ensure seasonal rollout is aligned with Global direction

• Be close to market to monitor direct competitors against Brand\'s position in terms of pricing, product, technology, Hero items.

• Ensure timely rollout of monthly launches and product assortment plan prior launch of a season

• Touch base weekly/monthly with both E COM OPs to reaffirm on Banner and promotion roll out

Align best practices across territory

• Adhere to existing best practices and ensure it is consistently rolled out in different participating platform/s

• Ensure that functional work processes are clearly defined

Pre-season Planning

• Review Sales, Inventory, Profit and OTB Budgets vs actual performance by channel and division and evaluate the achieve ability of budget targets for future seasons using the OTB tool.

Present risks and opportunities to, and sign off any changes with the General Manager and Head of Retail Merchandising.

Determine OTB\'s for future seasons making sure it allows efficient cover of Inventory while delivering profit and minimizing End Inventory.

Present to and sign off with the General Manager and Head of Retail Merchandising.

Review store base grading by analyzing historical sales, SKU efficiency, and specific store needs as well as strategy.

Work with Visual Merchandising on capacity planning to make sure the stores have the right amount of SKU\'s per space/concept at any point in time.

Hand over the SKU targets to Merchandising to make sure the needed capacity is fulfilled and to prevent over-capacity.

Provide appropriate top line and style level reporting and analysis for ECOM Merchandising team to be able to make educated buy decisions

Create achievable seasonal top-line plans for individual platforms and category sales and options in the Range Plan tool based on brand strategy, country strategy, history and range strategy.

Create bottom-up plans by style including grading, start and end weeks, ROS, MD and end Inventory in the Range Plan tool based on historical analysis.

Ensure plans reflect the types of items planned i.e. best sellers vs interest pieces to make sure inventory is managed effectively.

Ensure these plans reflect the created top line plans.

Present the buy plans including current trading trends, OTB for future seasons, Range Plan analysis and VLP together with ECOM Merchandising Team in Monthly and half yearly Global meetings.

Ensure size level analysis performance on Gender/ BU/ class level and create sized buy plans for ordering on style level.

Task 2: In-season Planning

• Drive weekly, monthly, quarterly and seasonal reporting and analysis and present these during weekly trading meetings. Drive the discussion on actions needed based on trading.

• Review weekly sales at style level and make trading decisions for promotions, MD, price changes, re-buy needs, stock transfers etc.

• Review the plans for upcoming seasons against actual situation and create final store plans and stock flow for allocation. Review allocation plans prepared by allocation team and discussed changes needed or pending issues.

• Manage markdown budget, making sure the correct flow and level of MD is applied. Make sure the exit strategy is followed thereafter MD and seasonal change-over takes place as planned.

• Manage the re-forecasting of sales, inventory, profit and OTB weekly at top line and concept level for each channel and division based on current trading using a WSSI, rolling up to Quarterly level for the OTB tool. Present changes, opportunities, concerns or solutions to Merchandiser and Country Retail Director.

• Oversee the placement of orders and track deliveries and stock flow to Warehouse.

• Ensure an efficient inventory flow between channels and locations; transfers in and out, store vs warehouse, and that any opportunities are fulfilled. Inform channels of changes in inventory forecasts that will directly affect KPI\'s.

• Manage promotion execution together with ECOM operation team 30%

Task 3: Process improvement

• In conjunction with Retail Merchandising Team, work on improving the processes and tools used.

• Ensure existing tools are compatible with country needs and systems. Highlight needs to Retail Merchandising Manager.

In the absence of set templates, drive the introduction and implementation of such tools. 10%

Task 4: Strategy

• Create extensive Lessons-learnt analyses for previous seasons to be used as a basis of strategy for future seasons

• Provide feedback and input into the Country Retail Strategy process to ensure that the strategy is market relevant and addresses the right areas of the brand and business

• In conjunction with Retail Merchandising Team, create buy Strategies that are in line with the Brand and Country Strategies and specific to store- and market needs, highlighting risks and opportunities 10%

Task 5: Building the Team

• Train and lead ECOM Merchandising Team on full spectrum if buying across different regions and platform. Ensuring allocation plan and inventory situation are at optimal level in accordance to sales plan

• Train and lead analysis Team, providing deep dive analysis on pricing and promotion. Reflect studies into the buy for future seasons and events planning 30%

Requirements:

Bachelor Degree, preferably with business degree

Minimum 5 years retail / merchandising experience in a fashion / branded / ecommence environment/ cover S.E.A level min 3 regions (Singapore,Malaysia,India & Philippines )

Strong computer skills including MS Excel, Word, Power Point.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Good English written/verbal skills required

CORE COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS:

Functional Competencies:

Consumer and ecommence focused

Proven competencies in retail math and understanding of what drives business- and store performance

Ability to take balanced risks, strong entrepreneurial spirit with decisive attitude

Solutions focused, results-drive, highly organized and adaptable

Functional Skills:

Strong communication and presentation skills

Excellent analytical and problem solving skills

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