Allocator – London, United Kingdom
Position Overview
Ref #
W180389
State/Region
London
Department
Merchandising & Planning
Location
United Kingdom
City
London
COMPANY DESCRIPTION
Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL) is a global leader in the design, marketing and distribution of premium lifestyle products in five categories: apparel, accessories, home, fragrances, and hospitality. For more than 50 years, Ralph Lauren’s reputation and distinctive image have been consistently developed across an expanding number of products, brands and international markets. The Company’s brand names, which include Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren Collection, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Polo Ralph Lauren, Double RL, Lauren Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren Children, Chaps, among others, constitute one of the world’s most widely recognized families of consumer brands. At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all. We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.
POSITION OVERVIEW
The Allocator plays a key role in the success of their product division, utilising dedicated IT applications to create and manage all initial and replenishment allocations of stock to stores, as well as providing administrative support to the planning team including running reports, analysing sales and stock figures.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES
Operations/Financial
- Producepacksfor Monday trade meetings which include weekly sales and promotional Reports
- AttendKey Meetings to understand season performance as well as forward strategies
- Work within teams to formulate and implement strategies to help drive sales.
- Ensure the financial success of a product group by allocating stock to stores to meet or exceed sales, gross profit, and inventory turn goals
- Track and monitor Distribution Center (DC)and Storeavailable inventory for the product group,maximisingsales to stock ratios and turn
- Execute the release of initial product distributions and in season replenishment to stores
- Monitor and ensure full size availability of best sellers, Continuity lines and seasonal products in storesin order tomaximisesellthrough
- Work withcross functionalteams to ensure timely and accurate execution of new store openings
- Support planning teams with store, product and size analysis
- Manage store communications through thesystemRetail Intelligencetoanswer store call outs and as well as communicate promotional and mark down changes
- Use systems including JDA,Microstrategy, Promo MD,and SAP
Communications/Relationships
- Develop and maintain effective working relationships within cross-functionalteam(stores,buying, planning, marketing, visual, etc.).In particular theplanner and buyer in the team responsible for the product group
- Communicate initial release and replenishment strategies within cross functional team
- Participate in cross functional meetings, contributing input on distributionand/ or tradingstrategies
- Composeanddeliverkey trading messages to the wider business.
- Collaborate with peers to ensure consistency of information, share best practices and develop systems knowledge
- Manage communication regarding inventory/replenishment with field contacts on astore by storebasis if required
- Store visits to gain insighttoperformance and availability
- Participate in Company initiatives as appropriate
EXPERIENCE, SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE
- Able to organize,prioritisetasks and manages time wellin order tomeet deadlines
- Demonstrates logical analysis andproblem solvingskills
- Demonstrates good listening, written and oral communication skills, effectively and clearly communicates
- Able to build and maintain productive relationships within team environment
- Advanced PC and associated application skills in MS Word and Excel
- Show ability or aptitude in retail math, and to learn technical applications quickly