Location:

Secaucus, New Jersey

Job Summary:

The Stores & Canada Planner will serve as the expert for Stores and Canada performance.
They will be responsible for creating store level reporting and analytics to provide a clear view of performance
by door and aggregated performance by store cluster/region/climate. They will collaborate with cross-functional teams including finance, merchandising, visual merchandising, operations, and real estate to develop and implement store plans that align with company goals and strategies. The store planner will hindsight in-season performance to help shape pre-season plans.

They will be responsible for overseeing the Canada Business across all brands (sales, KPI and inventory projections for both in-season and pre-season planning). The Manager is responsible for tracking trends on a day-to-day basis and working collaboratively with key stakeholders such as Marketing, Finance, Merchandise Planning and Merchandising to drive the business and mitigate risks.

Responsibilities:

Key Accountabilities:

Store Planning (80%):

• Develop Sales, Margin and KPI plans by store through a multiple lens approach (comp, builds, penetration, percent of average, etc.), incorporating field feedback, trends and go-forward strategies
• Identify trends/risks/opportunities at store level. Make recommendations and recap business accurately to support store performance. Assess and proactively communicate any potential impact to topline sales.
• Report out on key drivers in actuals vs plan by store/region/volume grade/climate/district. Proactively identify any action steps needed (e.g. channel change, price action, allocate more inventory).
• Hindsight relationship between sales and inventory at the store/district/region/season code levels. Liaise with Inventory Planning on any key takeaways to impact future allocations.
• Identify regional product preferences to recommend customized assortment by region based on weather or other factors. Liaise with MBA and Inventory Planning team.
• Calendarize significant historical weather/holidays impact to understand trend and plan into appropriately
• Identify risk and opportunities based on promotional offers and recommend strategies that will help drive financial results (e.g. store coupon performance)
• Manage and maintain excel based store planning tools to ensure accurate and efficient planning processes.
• Create daily sales and KPI plans by state for Ecom and Stores that tie back to the Tax-Free Calendar
• Liaise with Finance/Real Estate teams to understand and incorporate impact to plans from future/potential store openings, closures and relocations. Demonstrate ability to handle sensitive and confidential information.
• Project out by store returns and report on Gross Sales to understand the true health of the business and understand impact of returns by Brand.
• Analyze by store impact of BOSS on Sales and KPIs
• Be the analytical partner to Stores leadership, Field Ops and Labor planning. Support decision making with reporting/data.
• Perform Ad Hoc/ “What If” scenario projects as business needs dictate

Canada Planning (20%):

• Manage topline sales and KPIs for Canada Stores & Ecom by day based on current trends, planned marketing strategy and latest promotional calendar.
• Present performance vs. target analysis on a weekly basis to planning leadership to ensure comprehensive understanding of key business drivers as well as identify future risks and opportunities.
• Manage inventory levels in Canada by closely monitoring and reporting on season code sales and inventory levels vs. targets and vs. history.
• Recommend sales and KPI forecast scenarios which identify potential what-ifs and help to determine the optimal sales and GM% targets to maximize profitability and inventory efficiency.

Education and Experience:

• 5+ years of experience in Retail Planning and Analysis, with specific background in store planning
• Bachelor’s degree

Skills & Behaviors:

• Expertise in retail math with strong analytical skills (advanced Excel)
• Ability to “start from scratch” and work through new tools, processes, etc.
• Comfortable speaking to finance and non-finance teams, as well as executive level audience
• Ability to manage multiple projects from start to finish with minimum oversight, while still maintaining strong attention to detail
• Experience and comfortable working with large datasets and complex spreadsheets
• Entrepreneurial mind-set. Solution oriented/creative problem-solving skills.
• Proactively identify key themes to analyze and further drive the business
• Sense of urgency
• Good organization and workload prioritization skills/ detail-orientation and accuracy
• Strong team player

Hourly/Salary

$75,000.00 - $150,000.00 Salary o Benefits include: Bonus eligible (depending on role), Paid Time Off, Employee Discount, 401(k) and company match, Wellness Reimbursement, Adoption Assistance, free backup care (for kids, pets & the elderly), choice of health insurance plans, company-paid life/AD&D, short and long term disability, a variety of voluntary benefits and an employee assistance program. Benefit offerings are subject to change and vary by role/level for each position. Respective waiting periods may apply to certain benefit offerings.

The Children's Place is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to a diverse and inclusive work environment.