Senior Executive, Retail Merchandising

Together with the Manager, Retail Merchandising, responsible for delivering a buy strategy per season and building the most profitable, balanced, customer-focused range for the country which reflects the PUMA Brand Strategy and supports any key country strategies. 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.

Execution of seasonal FP buy

• Execute seasonal buy in accordance to OTB & Budget.
• Define assortment based on market/store/customer profile, participate in seasonal kickoff 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 analyze consumer buying patterns, predicting future trends.

Effective and efficient in-season rollout

• Collaborate with VM & Retail Operations to ensure seasonal rollout is aligned with Global direction.
• Garner feedback from Brand ambassadors on shop floor to enhance pre-season planning.
• 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 VM & Retail OPs to reaffirm on RESEC/GSEC.
• Participate in monthly SIC meeting / Walk the stores/retail visit bi-monthly.

Align best practices across territory

• Adhere to existing best practices and ensure it is consistently rolled out in different markets.
• Ensure that functional work processes are clearly defined.
• Learn and adopt best practices from regional counterparts.

Your Mission

Task 1: Pre-season Planning

• Review Sales and Inventory vs actual performance by stores and division. Present risks and opportunities to and sign off any changes with the Retail Merchandising Manager and Head of Retail.
• 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 ensure the stores have the right amount of SKU's per space/concept at any point in time.
• Provide appropriate top line and style level reporting and analysis, to make educated buy decisions.
• Create achievable seasonal top-line plans for store 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.
• Analyze size level 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.
• 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.
• 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 fulfill any opportunities.

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.

Your Talent

Education: Bachelor's Degree in Business Management or equivalent studied.

Professional: Minimum 3-4 years retail / merchandising experience in a fashion / branded / retail environment.

Language Skills: Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Good English written/verbal skills required (PUMA Group language is English).