Merchandising Planner - Apparel

What is a day in the life of a Merchandising Planner of Apparel?

• Analyze daily and weekly sales, inventory positions, size-level trends, and marketplace performance to identify risks, opportunities, and demand shifts.
• Build seasonal and evergreen assortments using data insights, trend awareness, category knowledge, and competitive research.
• Own seasonal planning by aligning assortment architecture, key items, and margin targets to the retail calendar and milestone timelines.
• Develop and refine size-curve strategies to improve sell-through, balance inventory, and meet marketplace demand across categories and channels.
• Support Open-to-Buy and preseason buy planning through accurate forecasting, scenario analysis, and data-backed recommendations.
• Partner with buying, planning, and supply chain teams to align on purchase quantities, replenishment needs, chases, and delivery timing for upcoming launches.
• Monitor SKU performance and recommend actions such as pricing adjustments, replenishment decisions, content updates, or strategic inventory shifts.
• Shape pricing strategy and markdown cadence to maximize margin, competitiveness, and healthy inventory productivity throughout the season.
• Manage the full product lifecycle—from launch readiness to replenishment to end-of-season exit—to ensure strong performance and margin contribution.
• Collaborate with marketing, creative, and channel teams to support merchandising stories, seasonal campaigns, and new product launches.
• Influence PDP and content quality by reviewing imagery, fit copy, attributes, and setup accuracy to improve discoverability and conversion.
• Track vendor timelines, PO progress, and sample readiness to ensure on-time deliveries and consistent in-stock performance.
• Prepare and present clear reporting, insights, and assortment recommendations to internal teams, senior leadership, and brand partners.

What will I need to thrive in this role?

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Merchandising, Marketing, or a related field.
• 5 years of experience in merchandising, assortment planning, buying, category management, or a related analytical role.
• Previous experience working in e-commerce or marketplace environments (D2C, Amazon, Walmart.com, or similar platforms).
• Strong self-motivation and proactive approach, thriving in a fast-moving apparel ecommerce environment.
• Unwavering commitment to ethical standards, brand integrity, and customer satisfaction.

What does high performance look like?

• Consistently delivers on all projects and assignments with attention to quality and deadlines.
• Demonstrates full ownership and accountability over merchandising initiatives, seeing projects through from concept to execution.
• Effectively communicates and manages up and across leadership and cross-functional teams, to ensure alignment and actioning with speed and accuracy.
• Actively engages in team and cross-functional collaborations, bringing forward ideas and engaging in constructive dialogue.
• Maintains exceptional organization and attention to detail, ensuring flawless execution across all apparel ecommerce tasks.

What is my potential for career growth?

• You will work alongside a team of Merchandising Planners and report to the Director of Apparel, with regular mentorship from the VP of Ecommerce.
• As your analytical and merchandising skills deepen, you’ll take ownership of larger categories, more complex assortments, and higher-visibility brand portfolios.
• High performers have a clear pathway to expanded leadership responsibilities and broader strategic influence within Pattern’s growing apparel division.

Sounds great! What’s the company culture? We are looking for individuals who are:

• Game Changers- A game changer is someone who looks at problems with an open mind and shares new ideas with team members, regularly reassesses existing plans and attaches a realistic timeline to goals, makes profitable, productive, and innovative contributions, and actively pursues improvements to Pattern’s processes and outcomes.
• Data Fanatics- A data fanatic is someone who recognizes problems and seeks to understand them through data, draws unbiased conclusions based on data that lead to actionable solutions, and continues to track the effects of the solutions using data.
• Partner Obsessed- An individual who is partner obsessed clearly explains the status of projects to partners and relies on constructive feedback, actively listens to partner’s expectations, and delivers results that exceed them, prioritizes the needs of your partners, and takes the time to create a personable experience for those interacting with Pattern.
• Team of Doers- Someone who is a part of a team of doers uplifts team members and recognizes their specific contributions, takes initiative to help in any circumstance, actively contributes to supporting improvements, and holds themselves accountable to the team as well as to partners.

What is the hiring process?

• Initial phone interview with Pattern’s talent acquisition team
• Video interview with a hiring manager
• Onsite interview with a panel of department leaders
• Professional reference checks
• Executive review
• Offer

How can I stand out as an applicant?

• Discuss professional accomplishments with specific data to quantify examples
• Provide insights on how you can add value and be the best addition to the team
• Focus on mentioning how you would be partner obsessed at Pattern
• Share experience on any side projects related to data and analytics