Summary
The Allocation Planner owns store allocation and inventory strategy for the retail fleet, optimizing product flow, store productivity, and inventory performance. Based in the New Orleans headquarters, this role manages in-season replenishment, transfers, and new store opening inventory to protect sales and margins. The Planner partners with Planning, Retail Operations, Logistics, and the distribution center to drive execution, reporting, and continuous improvement.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain store clustering and attribute frameworks to drive differentiated assortments and optimize inventory productivity.
- Manage inventory levels by door using capacity, seasonality, and selling curves; identify and act on stock liabilities and opportunities.
- Lead in-season inventory management including replenishment execution, inter-store transfer recommendations, and consolidations.
- Design inventory strategy for new store openings and coordinate execution with Logistics, Retail Operations, and the DC.
- Analyze store and channel sales, weeks-of-supply, sell-through, and stock-to-sales to produce actionable recommendations and performance recaps.
- Own allocation execution across channels, monitor warehouse and in-transit inventory, and resolve receiving or shipping issues.
- Build and publish best-seller, hindsight, and allocation performance reporting on a regular cadence to inform leadership.
- Standardize and improve allocation and replenishment processes and drive adoption of allocation systems and reporting tools.
Requirements
- 3+ years of experience in retail allocation, inventory planning, or merchandise planning.
- Experience within specialty retail, fashion, accessories, or product-driven consumer brands preferred, with support for growing store fleets a plus.
- Strong financial and analytical acumen with the ability to translate data into clear actions.
- Deep understanding of allocation, replenishment, inventory flow, and store-level selling metrics.
- Proven ability to lead in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment and drive results with high ownership.
- Resourceful, solutions-oriented, and comfortable challenging processes to implement scalable improvements.
- Excellent cross-functional communication skills and experience working with Planning, Retail Operations, and Logistics.
- Proficiency with allocation/planning systems, reporting tools, and large data sets.
