Director of Merchandise Planning

Lead and mentor a team of 6 planners in Oakland and Los Angeles with experience from entry-level to manager in driving all merchandise
planning functions across Owned Brand, Branded, and Non-Branded businesses at Dolls Kill both DTC and B&M (including permanent location, sample sales, and pop ups). Act as primary driver of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, developing, and mentoring the planning team
•   Steer monthly Open to Buys, partnering with executive leadership on topline financial targets including sales, receipts, and margin goals and provide direction to team at the bottoms-up level. Coordinate with merchant leadership on open and to-be-placed receipts, collection launch timing,
and sales performance. Monitor and advise on retail pricing, costing, and IMU. Present tops-down and bottoms-up rollups to executive leadership
•   Partner with marketing, site merchandising, and merchant teams in creating weekly promotions. Monitor competitor activity, advise on sitewide
and category-specific promotional ideas, assess timing, determine all promotional pricing within margin target guidelines. Create SKU rankings
based on available on hand inventory, traffic, and conversion for site merchandising purposes
•   Perform detailed assessments of weekly business performance - track Owned Brand collections (average monthly launches are about 15 to 20)
during a 6 week window, reviewing sales, margin, inventory, sell-thru and W.O.H. to determine in season actions to achieve plan. Review
categories to establish how sales perform to investment across brand types. Support the launch of around 800 new items weekly
•   Create and distribute sizing tool to support orders of new, re-order, and Evergreen items. Identify top performing items for re-orders and coordinate
purchases with merchants. Develop and manage ladder plans for Evergreen styles. Conduct ad hoc analysis as needed, for example - deep diving
into burgeoning Plus business. Determine and execute all markdowns - both initial and furthers
•   Develop and maintain tools providing a detailed view of traffic, conversion, sales and sell-thru on a variety of levels from brand type down to the SKU level. Ensure collection line plans and brand sales and receipt targets are created and executed in alignment with design timelines. Participate
in stye outs to review upcoming launches, monitor investment, and advise on depth and pricing

Pivoted from weekly buyplans to daily buyplans at beginning of Covid-19 when business surged over 4x. Worked with merchandising, supply
chain, and distribution partners during a period of immense sell-thru. Reviewed items on a per day basis to ensure uninterrupted service to subscribers and tracked orders at each DC. Managed finance re-directs in topline forecasts, developed multiple scenarios to determine re-order
volumes and contingencies. Conducted margin and sales loss analysis to determine air freight viability. Developed new instock modelling to determine which channels would be allocated inventory
•   Re-designed inventory tools and strategies to support the launch of a third 3PL location which was stood up in less than three months during Covid
to support order volume. Continually re-assessed and provided insight into allocation between DC locations based on product considerations,
inbound shipments, transfer costs, and customer clusters
•   Pioneered and led monthly S&OP meetings with leadership team, reviewing actualized and roll-forward inventory value by type (finished good vs WIP vs component), MAPE by channel, W.O.S. by product categories, obsolete/excess inventory, upcoming promotions or special events, new and sunsetting products, instock risk, and proposed disposals/scrap
•   Hired, onboarded and managed an Inventory Planner (new position) during Covid surge; also actively interviewed, onboarded, and supported new
Supply Chain team members as team grew from four people to nine people in six months. Mentored and acted as thought partner for junior team
members for projects, excel support, upward communication, and general growth
•   Planned and executed all door Ulta expansion from 450 stores to over 1200 stores in 2019; oversaw successive strong annual YOY growth in Ulta
channel (including +50% in 2020, and +84% 2021 Jul YTD) by leading all sales, margin, and receipt planning for the channel and determining
inventory strategies at a bottoms-up level to support new product launches, special programs including etagieres, promotions, and assortment
changes. Reviewed orders and inventory levels and worked with Ulta planners to ensure efficient and well-allocated inventory
•   Led planning for new initiatives including strategy for Target x Ulta launched in 2021 and BOPIS in Fall 2020; worked with large group of internal
and external partners to clarify inventory demands for each project, participated in system creation, developed new tools, planned financial aspects
•   Supported growth of brick & mortar business from single pop-up to over 50 stores in 2021, as well as new concept Color Bar Mini stores with targeted inventory strategies and allocations through collaboration with store design and presentation teams, merchandising, engineering, and 3PL
partners. Acted as sole SME for internally built inventory tools; actively identified and resolved bugs with engineering partners, worked with field
teams to perform audits, travelled to new stores for setups, conducted trainings, and partnered with accounting on monthly closes

Senior Manager, Inventory Planning

Developed all inventory tools and processes from scratch to support a direct-to-consumer business experiencing 2x annual growth, a nascent brick
and mortar Color Bar business, and wholesale partners including Ulta, Sephora, and QVC. Tools included bottom-up buyplans, cash flow models to support physical inventory, samples, and marketing inserts, weekly at-risk tool, product cost by channel, Color Bar order tools, and open order logs
•   Owned all inventory and merchandise planning for wholesale channels; partnered with Ulta and Sephora's planners to determine overall sales
forecasts, inventory model sets, weekly receipts, and product launches. Supported the initial rollout of Madison Reed at Ulta stores in 2017.
Produced weekly and monthly recapping for performance and a monthly open to buy for CPO and other key partners to align on sales trajectory
•   Created and distributed a weekly product dashboard with all sales information by item at the weekly, month-to-date, quarter-to-date, and year-to-
date level compared to running forecast and budget; no such recap had previously existed. Utilize finance topline revenue forecast and trend
analysis to determine item demand. Develop all new product forecasts with the VP of Product Development
•	Managed vendors in USA, Italy, China, and Malaysia. Wrote all purchase orders, negotiated cost reductions, managed transfer and maintenance of physical inventory at vendor locations (including componentry to support light manufacturing) and DCs. Strategized inventory purchases around
major holidays in Italy and China, allocated inventory between DCs efficiently; ensured a "never-out" experience for subscribers
•	Scoped and participated in the development of more efficient tools. Collaborated in the rollout of NetSuite for the company in 2018, the first major
outside system the company has used. Developed internal systems to support inventory for both DTC and Color Bar business in collaboration with engineering team

Manager, Inventory Planning

Drove business across nine departments in both the mainline retail bebe channel and the outlet channel equating to 50% of retail sales and 25% of
outlet sales equating to total sales volume of over $120M annually; produced, managed, and presented monthly open to buys, led hindsight and
blueprint discussions, collaborated with cross-functional partners during investment reviews, and executed in-season markdowns, promotions, and ad hoc strategies
•	Developed a direct report new to planning, introducing him to tools and showcasing best-in-class processes including the use of Arthur Planning
and ladder forecasting, providing consistent feedback and support with cross-functional relationships as necessary
•	Produced a new forecasting process based on unit sales and inventory and incorporating cost to provide more accuracy and visibility when
assessing future gross margin. Previous process did not allow for any gross margin visibility and did not include cost as a feature

Merchandise Planning Manager

Managed inventory strategies, allocations, and open to buy spending for Target's Electronic Services, Home Theater, AV Accessories, and Clock
Radio businesses, collectively worth $130M in sales per year; Drove 40% comparable sales growth versus prior year in Electronic Services and average inventory and instock improvements in AV Accessories through targeted allocation strategies
•	Supervised and served as mentor for four summer interns in completing a project of Electronics company space programs over the last three years
covering over 1,000 SKUs; Participated in talent planning and provided weekly statuses and developmental feedback
•	Produced results in the Electronics Division company space programs by leading a team of five analysts to improve sales, instocks, and profitability
and initiated a competitive negotiations process for company space, collaborating with Target's negotiation team and two buyers for a return to vendor arrangement for unproductive inventory, cost concessions, and markdown funding

Senior Merchandise Planning Business Analyst

Selected from a competitive pool of applicants from top-tier colleges to participate in a summer consulting fellowship, attended weekly seminars by
consultants from top firms, participated in consulting mentorship program
•	Authored the 2010-11 Guidebook for the inaugural class of Peace First AmeriCorps members; Researched extensively to ensure compliance with AmeriCorps standards
•	Collaborated with leadership team to onboard 45 staff, doubling the size of the organization; Developed and implemented new supervisorial and logistical systems to support new staff

Non-Profit Consulting Fellow

Find out detailed information about Nichole Smith, Director of Merchandise Planning in Walnut Creek, CA

Nichole Smith: Director of Merchandise Planning in Walnut Creek, CA

Nichole Smith

Dolls Kill, Inc

Madison Reed, Inc

Color Bar

bebe stores, Inc

Target Corporation

New Sector Alliance

University of Chicago