Merchandising Planner
New Balance · Seoul
Who We Are:
Since 1906, New Balance has empowered people through sport and craftsmanship to create positive change in communities around the world. We innovate fearlessly, guided by our core values and driven by the belief that conventions were meant to be challenged. We foster a culture in which every associate feels welcomed and respected, where leaders and creatives are inspired to shape the world of tomorrow by taking bold action today.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Merchandising Planner is responsible for developing and managing merchandise financial plans to drive profitable growth across all channels. This role leads demand forecasting, assortment investment planning, initial margin and profitability planning, and inventory forecasting while ensuring alignment between financial targets and merchandising strategies.
The position partners closely with Merchandising, Buying, Retail, E-commerce, Supply Chain, and Finance teams to deliver data-driven insights, improve forecast accuracy, enhance planning visibility, and support informed business decision-making.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Merchandise Financial Planning & Demand Forecasting
- Develop annual, seasonal, monthly, and weekly merchandise financial plans.
- Own sales and assortment investment forecasts across channels and categories.
- Develop and manage demand forecasts by product line and category, leveraging historical performance, market trends, and merchandising drivers to align sales plans, inventory investments, and merchandise strategies.
- Conduct monthly and in-season reforecasting to identify risks and opportunities within sales and demand projections.
- Support budget planning and financial target setting across functions.
- Monitor forecast performance against actual results and identify key demand drivers, risks, and opportunities to continuously improve forecast accuracy.
- Perform post-season forecast reviews to evaluate forecasting effectiveness and incorporate learnings into future planning cycles.
Assortment Investment Planning & Reconciliation
- Support seasonal sales target reconciliation by aligning top-down financial targets with bottom-up assortment and demand plans.
- Partner with Merchandising and Buying teams to align assortment investments with commercial objectives.
- Consolidate cross-channel assortment plans into a unified seasonal investment framework.
- Reconcile demand forecasts with assortment and investment plans at product line and category level.
- Validate assortment plans against sales forecasts using key merchandising metrics including SKU count, unit demand, ASP (Average Selling Price), and AUR (Average Unit Retail).
- Conduct gap analysis between demand forecasts, assortment strategies, and investment plans.
- Identify planning gaps and provide recommendations to improve assortment productivity and investment efficiency.
- Monitor assortment productivity throughout the season and highlight risks and opportunities versus plan.
- Conduct post-season reviews to evaluate assortment productivity, buy efficiency, and forecast accuracy, incorporating learnings into future planning cycles.
Planning Governance & Continuous Improvement
- Support seasonal sales target reconciliation by aligning top-down financial targets with bottom-up assortment and demand plans.
- Partner with Merchandising and Buying teams to align assortment investments with commercial objectives.
- Consolidate cross-channel assortment plans into a unified seasonal investment framework.
- Reconcile demand forecasts with assortment and investment plans at product line and category level.
- Validate assortment plans against sales forecasts using key merchandising metrics including SKU count, unit demand, ASP (Average Selling Price), and AUR (Average Unit Retail).
- Conduct gap analysis between demand forecasts, assortment strategies, and investment plans.
- Identify planning gaps and provide recommendations to improve assortment productivity and investment efficiency.
- Monitor assortment productivity throughout the season and highlight risks and opportunities versus plan.
- Conduct post-season reviews to evaluate assortment productivity, buy efficiency, and forecast accuracy, incorporating learnings into future planning cycles.
APAC & Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner closely with Merchandising, Commercial, Supply Chain, Finance and Channel teams to support successful execution of seasonal plans.
- Act as the primary contact for consolidating and communicating Korea demand inputs across all channels to APAC Planning teams.
- Prepare and communicate consolidated Korea demand updates, planning inputs and seasonal assumptions to APAC stakeholders.
- Maintain planning documents, reporting and demand submissions in accordance with regional planning timelines and milestones.
- Proactively communicate significant changes in Korea demand outlook, opportunities and risks to relevant stakeholders.
- Support cross-functional discussions to ensure demand plans are aligned with business priorities, product strategies and seasonal objectives.
REQUIREMENTS FOR SUCCESS
- Minimum 8-10 years of experience in Merchandise Planning, Assortment Planning, Business Planning, Buying, Demand Planning or related retail planning functions.
- Relevant experience within sporting goods, footwear, fashion or retail industries preferred.
- Understanding of assortment planning, inventory management and market demand planning processes.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret sales, inventory and product performance data.
- Proven ability to translate business objectives into actionable assortment and volume plans.
- Experience working in a multi-channel retail environment.
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Written and verbal communication skills in both Korean and English.
- Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Excel, along with Tableau or other reporting and planning tools.
- Highly organized with strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES
- Collaborative
- Commercial minded
- Data-oriented
- Detail-oriented
- Proactive
- Strategic thinker
- Strong communicator
- Problem solver
- Results-driven
- Adaptable and resilient
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Location: Seoul Anguk, Korea / Department: Merchandising / Reports to: Merchandising Planning Manager
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Equal Opportunity Employer:
New Balance is committed to equality of opportunity for all current and prospective associates regardless of age, disability, race, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership and gender reassignment. We are an equal opportunity employer and support a culture of diversity and inclusion.
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