【Job summary】

The APMEA Retail Merchandise Planner is a newly created role to drive growth in Herman Miller’s retail business, focusing on the Asia Pacific region with potential to expand to the Middle East and Africa regions. Skilled in business analyses and inventory management, the role will collaborate closely with the APMEA retail business teams, Finance and Operations to drive both financial performance and operational efficiency. The ideal candidate is self-directed – able to operate independently and proactively – and innately possesses an innovative, “builder” mindset and skillset, as the role involves building, establishing and evolving processes and tools.

【Specific responsibilities】
◆Merchandise Financial Planning:
・Reviewing business performance weekly and variances to target/forecasts, conducting analyses to understand underlying drivers and trends
・Surfacing merchandising opportunities, such as changes to assortments, pricing/promotions and visual presentation, as well as inventory/supply chain opportunities, to drive sales and margin
・Providing analyses to estimate the impact of promotions and other potential actions
・Collaborating with cross functional partners to drive and support execution of actions
・Inseason reforecasting of the sales, margin and inventory targets to reflect trends and changes
・Presenting findings and facilitating discussion with the business teams and Finance partner/s in regular meetings

◆Inventory Management: Own the productivity of inventory housed in the APMEA warehouses, minimizing inventory liability while supporting sales. Specific activities include:
・Partnering with the business leaders to define and operationalize criteria to determine which items should be stocked in the warehouses versus made to order
・Maintaining the appropriate level of inventory for each warehouse’s stocked items, forecasting sales and placing buys as needed
・Partnering with Operations team/s to place buys and track status of inventory
・Collaborating with Finance to define and maintain a receipt budget
・Monitoring the level and composition of inventory in the warehouses, providing reporting and surfacing action when needed (e.g. promo opportunity, clearance sales, inventory moves between warehouses)
・Partner with Senior Director on a monthly check-in with leadership (e.g. via an “Open to Buy” meeting) to share latest sales, margin and inventory forecasts and updates on the state of inventory and business

◆Store Inventory Strategy and Execution: Partner with the APMEA stores team, Store Design, Merchandising and Operations teams to determine the assortment for each of the stores and execute accordingly. Specific activities include:
・Providing analyses to help determine which items should be displayed in stores, and which, if any, should be stocked and sellable in stores
・Working with Operations to procure inventory and send to stores; and then disposing of product that will no longer be on display/in stock in stores