Role & Responsibilities:  

Reporting to the Head of Planning, this role leads the Buying and Allocation Team for Direct-to-Consumer channels. This key role will drive sales, profitability, and brand growth by collaborating with leadership and cross-functional teams. Responsible for developing and executing buying strategies, managing inventory, and allocating merchandise to ensure optimal sales and profitability. 

Key Result Areas: 

Buying  

Accountable for overall categories achievement of financial category & classification targets, inventory levels, margins, turns, and productivity. 

Manage the Open-To-Buy by category according to buying strategy, financial target, and historical analysis. 

Determine strategies and tactics to achieve collaboratively owned targets for seasonal buy, revenue growth targets and inventory management. 

Oversee DTC buying strategic through depths & width, lead the reconciliation, adjustment during regional buy roll up and serve as the primary decision maker during final buy gate on SCO adoption. 

Ensure inventory plans tie to merchandise plans & company budget; identify business opportunities (e.g. by style and price point) 

Partner with Retail Planning to establish product plans for each season in $ and unit based on Merchant’s Assortment Range.  

Own and Drive seasonal newness depth planning and determine appropriate order depth. 

Collaborate with Category Planning Team to provide key insight on 24-month Merchandise Finance Plan rolling & drive high commonality across the region  

Define and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) that not only track performance but drive business performance, identifying opportunities for continuous improvement.  

Leverage data-driven insights to inform critical decisions in merchandise planning, inventory management, and allocation to maximize profitability and reduce operational risk. 

Lead team of buyers and allocator in driving sales optimization and inventory turn by through consolidations and model stock levels by store to drive improve stock availability, productivity, achieve sell through targets, and reduce overall markdown exposure. 

Lead and drive Size-Curve Analytics to drive productivity. 

Develops positive and influential relationships with the core cross functional team (Merchandising, Demand and Supply Planning, Marketing) to ensure consensus to buy investment and inventory levels required to support regional needs. 

Allocation  

Oversee the allocation strategy for all seasonal and core product across DTC channel 

Establish strong relationships cross functionally to resolve allocation exceptions that are escalated due to sales performance or supply changes. 

Provides visibility to product launch readiness for our sales channels and works collaboratively with supply planning, logistics, and distribution to ensure demand is met at launch 

Leads Allocation Planners and Sr. Allocation Planners through clear goal setting and supports in resolving exceptions to meet their responsibilities 

Reviews implications to changes in demand/ supply week over week within the allocation analysis and drives resolution. 

Reviews missed demand projections and identified deficiencies with Demand. Buying & allocation planners to resolve. 

Direct team on inventory movements required to support business needs, effectively plan and execute the transitional period between seasons to deliver full floor set refreshes in inline and cohesive collection launches in Outlets 

Owns analysis of inventory opportunities and recommending actions to optimize inventory throughout the product lifecycle. 

Owns and drives improvements in allocation process to leverage new tools and enhancements in support of optimizing supply. 

Monitor new store performance after opening, communicate with new store team and cross functional team to ensure optimal inventory levels are maintained. Ensure new stores open with the correct assortment and appropriate inventory levels as determined by the new store plan and buying strategy.  

Lead team to manage front and back of the house capacity to drive retail excellence 

Facilitates weekly and monthly checkpoints with marketplace to ensure allocation is meeting forecasted needs, where there are shortages or excess inventory to escalate and take additional courses of action 

Escalates related demand/supply issues that impact allocation planning 

Participate in cross functional team projects to facilitate change and improvement with processes, systems, & people 

Develop and maintain a good understanding of store profiles inclusive of master data, lead time management and location delivery requirements to improve the allocation process, cluster the stores into categories and continually improve the allocation process. 

Competency Requirements:  

Strategic vision - ability to articulate a clear, long-term strategy 

Strong analytical skills with expertise in retail Buying, Allocation and Forecasting 

Solid understanding of retail operations, merchandising, and supply chain planning within a fast-paced regional environment. 

Strong ability to balance statistical analysis with business judgment to drive demand planning accuracy and strategic decision-making. 

Excellent communication, collaboration, and presentation skills, with the ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and senior leadership. 

Ability to navigate complexity and uncertainty, adapting to shifting market conditions and business needs. 

Exhibits professionalism, honesty, integrity, curiosity and respect in all dealings with team members 

Self-motivated, team player, quick learner, positive attitude, ability deal with heavy workload and stress at times, good communicator, great sense of proactivity, challenges the status quo. 

Effective leadership skills, driving results with minimal direction, and managing teams to execute innovative strategies. 

Able to work under pressure with multiple tasks simultaneously while meeting tight deadlines 

Experience 

Minimum Relevant Experience:  Minimum 10 years’ experience Retail Planning, Allocation and Buying. 

Minimum Supervisory Experience: 5 years of experience 

Academic Qualifications 

Minimum Degree Held: Bachelor’s degree in business or finance. 

Language Proficiency: 

Fluent in English and Mandarin  

Specific Working Conditions 

Frequency of Travel: As required  

Other Specific Working Conditions:  

*If the position requires a person to work in special working conditions this should be stated in the position description. Special working conditions cover a range of circumstances from regular evening and weekend work, shift work, working outdoors, working with challenging clients, and so forth