Assistant Merchandise Planner (Fashion and Retail)

Responsibilities

Forecasting & Demand Planning

Build and maintain top-down & bottom-up forecasts by category/style/colour/size with a rolling 12-week view reflecting seasonality, timelines and marketing plans.

Track Weeks of Cover (WOC), sell-through, SOH, on-order and backorders; highlight gaps vs. targets and propose actions.

Monitor size curves by style/channel; recommend rebalances, short-size top-ups and future curve changes.

Translate demand signals (sales velocity, waitlists, influencer/collab pushes) into reorder

proposals and buy depth recommendations.

Identify trends early (winners/losers) and surface clear recommendations.

Inventory & Replenishment (In-Season)

Own Restocks & Buy Sheets; update 3x per week with latest sales, WOC, incoming ETAs and order decisions.

Maintain replenishment triggers that consider vendor lead time + safety stock; prepare draft POs for approval.

Track incoming stock against POs; reconcile ETAs/variances/splits; escalate risks or delays.

Keep core & best sellers in stock; propose substitutes or range switches when MOQs or fabric constraints appear.

Identify aged/slow movers; recommend markdowns, bundles or content pushes; ensure

high-SOH styles are actively advertised (influencers/collabs).

Work closely with Production to align WIP/ETAs so replenishment plans match reality.

Pre-Season Merchandise Planning

Assist with Open-to-Buy (OTB) budgets by month/category/channel; model scenarios and intake margin impact.

Build line/option counts, colour depth and size curve plans aligned to historicals and growth targets.

Prepare buy packs for sign-off: volumes, delivery windows, initial allocations and margin.

Reporting, Insights & Governance

Daily: sales & sell-through pulse; flag outs/near-outs; update trackers.

Weekly: publish trend report (winners/losers, WOC exceptions, returns trends, action list).

EOM: compile month-end pack with KPIs, range productivity and next-month plan; present improvement suggestions.

Analyse returns by reason/size/style; feed fixes into product, content and size curves.

Take minutes for planning/production WIPs; log actions and track to closure.

Data, Systems & Tooling

Keep product data accurate across Cin7, Shopify, Style Arcade (and PIM if used): titles, tags, attributes, costs, barcodes, categories, size curves, go-live status.

Maintain naming conventions and lifecycle statuses (incoming/active/clearance/archived).

Update systems with product information & incoming stock numbers the same day changes occur; avoid silent edits by logging changes.

Use ClickUp & Slack for task management, priorities and comms; uphold strong Google Drive hygiene.

Qualifications & experience

5+ years in merchandise/demand planning with global fashion brands (AU/UK/US exposure ideal).

Advanced Excel/Sheets (pivots, XLOOKUP/VLOOKUP, SUMIFS, INDEX-MATCH, basic scenario modelling).

Systems: Cin7, Shopify, Style Arcade; tasking in ClickUp and comms in Slack.

Strong commercial acumen with an eye for trend and seasonality.