Merchandising Analyst Allocations

**Sporting Life**

Sporting Life is a leading, iconic Canadian sports lifestyle retailer. Since 1979, we've been committed to providing our customers and their families with the best possible experience—and we are continuously working to improve it every day. We offer the best in outdoor apparel and fashion, footwear, equipment and accessories for men, women and kids. The mix of sport and fashion is what makes us unique.

YOU live for the great Canadian outdoors and take pride in _living the Sporting Life_. You relish in the exhilarating experience of skiing, snowboarding, cycling, running, tennis, hiking and camping and want to inspire our customers to do the same. You believe in the spirit of team, adapting to the ever-changing retail environment, being part of constant innovation and working alongside the best leaders, associates and vendors in the business. We are looking for those who live what we sell every day and who celebrate the love of sport and an active way of living.

As the Merchandising Analyst/Allocations, you will be responsible for assisting the Buyer with category initiatives through PO maintenance and maintaining item data in the system. You will also manage and allocate inventories for all stores by ensuring the right product gets to the right store at the right time in the right quantity to drive profitable sales. You will ensure balanced inventory levels by SKU and by store to maximize inventory productivity.

***Your Responsibilities**
- Data entry of product information (PO’s) in various systems as required
- Responsible for procurement and execution of SKU level marketing information, including the creation of landing pages, if necessary, i.e., images and copy
- Create bulk PO’s
- Purchase order maintenance and tracking as well as close and cancel updates
- Enters markdowns and administers systems needs; Director of Purchasing to approve
- General support in supplying ad needs as determined by buying staff
- Work with Store Operations on communications by providing timely execution updates, status and issue resolution
- Accurate data entry of product information in various systems as required
- Item setup and maintenance for multiple web assortments
- Build reports for size curve analysis
- Ensure the daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly checklists are being reviewed and managed by POD
- Responsible for replenishment of inventory, SKU maintenance and allocation/ for core SKUs
- Balances inventory required for promotions and seasonal requirements and allocates inventory in advance to ensure inventory is in stock to support sales
- Works with vendors on inventory availability, managing purchase orders, and tracking shipments
- Works with stores to ensure timely receipt of shipments
- Recommends inventory requirements through detailed analysis by SKU/store and works with Merchant and Vendors to forecast replenishment product needed for rolling 12 months
- Work with Planning Analyst as needed to ensure proper in-stock levels, balancing store sales to inventory ratios and working within Open to Buy
- Partner with Merchant to plan inventory capacity and replenishment by fixture and for Planogram programs
- Assist in the development, coordination and review of merchandise assortments by door/network
- Collaborate with the store, buyer and planning teams on the implementation of assortment, allocation, space and replenishment strategies
- Create reports to analyze sales, margin, and inventory to support category initiatives at the store level
- New store planning - product execution, process paperwork to execute plan, coordinate product and acquire supporting product needs
- Initiate and manage changes to purchase orders
- Ensure the daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly checklists are being reviewed and managed
- Identifies unproductive inventory (i.e., discontinued, excess, etc.) and works with merchants and the sales channels to sell through this inventory in a timely manner

***What You Offer**
- A love of fashion, sport and a healthy, active lifestyle
- Post-secondary education (University preferred) with a focus on retail, marketing or finance
- 3-5 years’ work experience in retail planning, buying or merchandising
- Experience in data entry and data management
- Ability to process information/merchandise through Oracle and order entry systems
- Be customer centric; listening, understanding and responding to customer needs while being committed to the customer first philosophy; this applies to both internal and external customers
- Perform duties with a high level of accuracy
- Proven analytical and problem-solving abilities
- Detailed orientated with a sense of urgency to follow-up
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Passion and strong understanding of footwear/apparel/hardgoods
- Ability to multi-task and easily adapt to current business trends; ability to work in a fast-paced, team environment
- Business knowledge of retail inventory management, merchandi