Merchandise Planner, Strategic Channels

Job description

**We are the champions of childhood** Hanna Andersson is a Portland, Oregon-based *premier kids and baby clothing brand*. Our clothes are **made to play, made to last, and designed to let kids be kids**. We have core **commitments to design, quality, and sustainability,**and we believe in **helping families create meaningful everyday moments.** These principles guide the Hanna Way, and lead to an experience authentically different from other children’s brands. We cultivate our unique brand by hiring team members who believe in these values, own a customer service mindset, and who are innovative, results-oriented, and comfortable working in a collaborative and growth-driven work environment. We all share in our brand’s success, and we actively encourage our team members to maintain a healthy balance in their daily lives. The Merchandise Planner, Strategic Channels is responsible for all aspects of pre-season and in-season inventory investment, optimization, and financial planning for the Collaborations business. This role is a strategic partner to Merchandising and drives business results through portfolio management, data analytics, demand forecasting, inventory management, and in-season price optimization. In addition to owning core merchandise planning responsibilities for Collaborations, the Merchandise Planner supports the execution, operational readiness, and performance management of strategic growth channels, including Amazon. This includes supporting channel-level sales and inventory forecasts, assortment and product-launch readiness, inventory availability, replenishment recommendations, pricing and promotional execution, reporting, and business analysis. The role partners with the Senior Manager, Pricing & Strategic Channels and cross-functional teams to ensure strategic-channel plans are coordinated with overall category priorities, inventory investments, brand objectives, and financial goals. The Merchandise Planner is accountable for delivering sales, gross margin, and inventory-turn plans for the Collaborations business through direct ownership of open-to-buy, style-level pre-season plans, sales and inventory forecasting, and in-season pricing strategies. The successful candidate will have merchandise planning experience and strong analytical, mathematical, problem-solving, organizational, time-management, influencing, decision-making, communication, and interpersonal skills. ### What You'll Do: Merchandise Planning & Inventory Management - Collaborations • Own the development of division-, department-, class-, and style-level plans for the Collaborations business that support brand strategy, product-launch calendars, and financial objectives. • Partner with Merchandising to develop top-down department and class sales, margin, and inventory plans that align with division objectives and Collaboration-specific strategies. • Develop and maintain bottom-up, style-level sales, inventory, receipt, and demand plans for Collaborations launches and ongoing programs. • Own bottoms-up financial reconciliation from style-level plans to department-level targets, identifying risks, opportunities, and required actions. • Own open-to-buy management, sales forecasting, and inventory forecasting for the Collaborations business. Assess total business risks and develop resolutions in partnership with the Director of Planning and cross-functional teams to achieve or exceed financial targets. • Drive strategies that positively impact assortment productivity, sales, gross margin, inventory turn, and product availability. • Maintain appropriate in-stock levels and optimize inventory across assigned Collaboration categories, channels, and product launches. • Lead weekly, monthly, quarterly, and seasonal business recaps to inform near-term actions and longer-term financial, inventory, assortment, and product-flow strategies. • Provide regular pre-season, in-season, and post-season analysis of business trends. Communicate actionable recommendations that support inventory productivity, maximize sales and margin, and mitigate risk. • Drive business discussions with Merchandising and cross-functional partners; adjust forecasts, inventory investments, and strategies as needed to optimize results. • Recommend and execute in-season pricing, markdown, reorder, cancellation, and inventory-transfer strategies in alignment with financial targets and broader promotional direction. • Partner with Sourcing to provide long-range forecasts and seasonal item-level forecasts aligned with production calendars, ensuring product is ordered and produced to support Collaboration launch timing and demand. Strategic Channels Support – Amazon & Other Growth Channels • Support the execution of strategic-channel initiatives, including Amazon, in partnership with the Senior Manager, Pricing & Strategic Channels and cross-functional stakeholders. • Assist with channel-level sales forecasts, inventory plans, product availability, product-launch readiness, and replenishment recommendations. • Support Amazon and strategic-channel assortment, inventory, pricing, and promotional execution, ensuring decisions align with the overall Collaboration and company financial plans. • Monitor channel performance—including sales, inventory, in-stock levels, pricing, promotional performance, and profitability—and provide analysis, reporting, and recommended actions. • Help identify inventory opportunities for strategic channels while balancing customer demand, brand priorities, operational constraints, and total-company inventory objectives. • Coordinate with E-commerce, Merchandising, Marketing, Sourcing, Supply Chain, DC Operations, and external channel partners to support accurate execution of product, inventory, and promotional plans. • Assist in building scalable planning reports, processes, and performance-management routines for Amazon and future strategic channels. ### You Should Have: • Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Supply Chain or equivalent experience in related discipline • 2+ years prior planning experience; direct to consumer preferred • Experience with Amazon and/or Wholesale preferred • Excellent analytical, mathematical and problem-solving skills and proficiency with retail math • Proven track record in driving results via merchandise forecasting, planning and data analytics • Detail-oriented with strong organizational and time management skills • Demonstrated record of prioritizing, influencing and decision making at multiple levels in the organization • Ability to use sales financial data to make decisions and maximize profitability • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with proven ability to build strong partnerships and influence others. • Excellent analytical application skills (Excel, etc.) and desire to master new systems; productivity application skills (PowerPoint, Word) • Ability to handle multiple tasks/projects with tight deadlines