Merchandise Planner - Footwear and Accessories

Job Description

An exciting opportunity has become available for a highly experienced Merchandise Planner in our licensed / private brands business. The Merchandise Planner is responsible for the delivery, implementation and management of the departmental business plans that support the merchandise strategy. Tekkie Town is looking for an energetic, self-confident, motivated, curious and resilient individual who can think laterally and who has strong analytical and proven numerical abilities.

A critical success factor in this role is cross-department collaboration. While you will directly own Footwear and Accessories, you will work hand-in-hand with the Apparel Buying and Planning teams to build perfectly balanced, cross-category assortments. Our ideal candidate will need to have a successful track record in product and store planning to maintain and grow the above-mentioned portfolio in accordance with company strategy and market share objectives. A strong trader mentality is essential.

Key Responsibilities

• Preparing and implementing merchandise business plans in support of the company strategy.
• Re-forecast seasonal sales based on previous performance to maximize profitability.
• Providing accurate and timeous merchandise information to minimize risk and optimise business opportunity.
• Preparing and delivering merchandise assortment plans.
• Range building in line with the departmental business plan.
• Maintain rigid control to maximize option productivity across footwear and accessories. Keep options lean and high-performing while meticulously balancing top-to-bottom ratios (e.g., aligning footwear and accessory depth to match the rapid turn of apparel collections)
• Conduct granular historical size curve analysis by store cluster for footwear sizes and accessory dimensions. Implement localized, precise size profiles to systematically eliminate broken size runs, eradicate terminal stock bleed, and drive maximum full-price sell-through.
• Post Seasonal Strategy – Analyse past seasons performance to determine proposed strategy.
• Managing Budgets – Ensure that all budgets are met as agreed in respect of sales, inflow margin, permanent and temporary price adjustments. Stock levels, stock turn and GMROII in accordance with seasonal strategy.
• Pre- Season Planning – Plan sales, markdowns, inflows and stock levels by category by week based on post- seasonal analysis. Trend info and comp shop SWOT analysis to roll up to the company strategic budget.
• Order/stock administration and control – Ensure orders are placed timeously and in line with agreed plan down to assortment criteria.
• Store planning – ability to align store plans with product plans and develop options plans and optimums to optimise inventory performance.
• Allocations – work closely with the Merchandise Allocators to execute strategic allocations to deliver store budgeted sales, gross profit and inventory productivity.
• Stock Management – Monitor that orders are placed timeously and in line with the agreed plan down to assortment criteria.
• Store stock management – Conduct regular store visits to keep in touch with store needs.
• Reviews - Prepare supporting information to be presented along with the product for review.
• Mentoring and leading teams.

Qualifications

• A relevant Bachelor's Degree / Diploma

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Minimum 3 to 5 years’ experience in product planning is essential, preference to licensed / private label product related experience.
• Experience working in planning systems such as Anaplan, Pattern Allocations and reporting tools such as Qlikview and GCP are advantageous.
• Advanced level in Excel or Google Sheets is essential.
• Collaborative DNA, a natural relationship builder with a strong affinity for cross-department teamwork, capable of aligning the footwear and accessories strategy with the broader clothing vision.
• High Energy & Analytical Focus, a passionate, proactive mathematical mind who thrives on intense data scrutiny, structural problem-solving, and taking 100% accountability for category profitability.
• Fast-Paced Resilience, proven stamina to navigate a fast-moving corporate environment.
• Practical knowledge of stock control and distribution to improve clearance and stock turn.
• Understanding of the retail merchandise cycle with regards to critical path, range planning and delivering a balanced assortment in stores.
• Strong skills in Google Suite including sheets (VLOOKUPs, pivot tables, advanced formulas) is an advantage.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex information clearly and concisely to diverse audiences.
• Attention to detail and accuracy in data analysis and reporting.
• Ability to demonstrate agility in a high paced environment.