The ideal candidate is someone who understands apparel and footwear retail, enjoys working with stock and data, and can turn information into practical action.
This person must not only be able to pull reports, but must also understand what the numbers mean, why stock issues happen, and how to solve them. They must understand the mechanics of inventory planning from the ground up and be able to follow through from planning, to communication, to execution.
The right candidate will be structured, analytical, practical, and hands-on, with a strong ability to solve problems and improve how stock flows through the business.
Job Purpose
The Apparel Inventory Planner is responsible for ensuring that the right products are available in the right stores, in the right quantities, at the right time.
This role manages stock planning, replenishment, allocations, size curves, transfers, stock balancing, and inventory reporting across retail stores, online channels, and warehouse locations.
The role requires someone who understands inventory planning from the ground up — not only the reporting side, but also the working mechanics behind stock movement, replenishment, allocations, store demand, ERP accuracy, warehouse flow, and execution across the business.
The Apparel Inventory Planner plays a critical role in improving stock availability, reducing stock-outs, managing slow-moving stock, supporting better buying decisions, and ensuring that inventory supports sales, customer demand, and profitability.
Key Responsibilities
1. Stock Planning & Replenishment
- Plan and manage stock levels across all stores, online channels, and warehouse locations.
- Monitor weekly sales, stock-on-hand, sell-through, weeks-of-cover, and stock availability.
- Identify fast-moving, slow-moving, and out-of-stock products.
- Recommend replenishment actions based on sales trends, stock holding, store performance, and customer demand.
- Ensure key styles, best sellers, and core products are available in the correct quantities and sizes.
- Maintain proper size curves across footwear, apparel, and accessories.
- Identify gaps in stock availability before they become sales problems.
- Support the business in maintaining the correct balance between stock availability and stock efficiency.
2. Allocations & Store Stock Balancing
- Allocate new stock to stores based on sales history, store grading, product type, size demand, store capacity, and available stock.
- Review stock distribution regularly and recommend store-to-store transfers where required.
- Ensure stores are not overstocked or understocked in specific products, categories, or sizes.
- Support new store openings, promotional launches, campaigns, and seasonal product drops with correct stock allocations.
- Ensure stock is placed where it has the highest chance of selling.
- Monitor store stock levels and recommend corrective actions where stores are carrying poor size curves, excess stock, or insufficient depth.
3. Inventory Reporting & Analysis
- Prepare weekly and monthly inventory reports to support decision-making.
- Report on key inventory metrics, including:
- Stock-on-hand
- Sell-through
- Weeks-of-cover
- Stock-outs
- Slow movers
- Best sellers
- Store performance by category
- Size availability
- Transfer requirements
- Replenishment needs
- Analyse product, store, category, and size performance.
- Identify risks and opportunities in the stock position.
- Translate sales and stock data into clear, practical actions.
- Provide management with meaningful insights, not just reports.
4. ERP & System Management
- Maintain and monitor accurate product, stock, and planning information on the ERP system.
- Ensure ERP data supports accurate planning, replenishment, reporting, and stock decision-making.
- Monitor transfers, shipments, receipts, and stock movements to ensure they are processed correctly.
- Follow up on unconfirmed shipments, outstanding transfers, receiving issues, and system discrepancies.
- Work closely with the Stock Controller to identify and resolve stock accuracy issues.
- Assist with stock take preparation, variance analysis, and stock accuracy improvement.
- Understand how system transactions impact physical stock, store availability, and reporting accuracy.
5. Planning Principles & Execution
- Understand planning principles from the ground up through to execution.
- Understand the full working mechanics of inventory planning, including how sales, stock, replenishment, allocations, transfers, buying, warehouse movement, and store performance all connect.
- Build planning recommendations that are practical, executable, and aligned with business reality.
- Identify the root cause of stock issues rather than only reacting to symptoms.
- Ensure that planning decisions are followed through into action.
- Work across teams to make sure that plans are implemented properly and that stock movements are completed.
6. Buying & Product Support
- Support the buying team with stock history, sales data, product performance, and size curve insights.
- Provide recommendations on reorder quantities, product depth, store allocations, and replenishment requirements.
- Assist in identifying products that should be repeated, discontinued, marked down, transferred, or rebalanced.
- Support seasonal, capsule, promotional, and core product planning.
- Provide input into future stock buys based on actual store and product performance.
- Help ensure that buying decisions are informed by data, store demand, and practical stock flow.
7. Store & Warehouse Communication
- Communicate stock movements, transfer requirements, replenishment priorities, and stock actions clearly to stores and warehouse teams.
- Follow up with stores on receiving, transfers, stock discrepancies, and stock availability issues.
- Work with store teams to understand customer demand, stock gaps, size requests, and product feedback.
- Ensure stores follow the correct processes for stock movement, receiving, transfers, and reporting.
- Work with warehouse teams to ensure stock is dispatched, received, and processed accurately and timeously.
- Escalate stock issues where needed and drive practical solutions.
8. Problem Solving & Continuous Improvement
- Identify stock-related problems and work through them logically.
- Understand the root cause of issues relating to stock-outs, overstocking, poor size curves, delayed transfers, system inaccuracies, or poor sell-through.
- Recommend practical solutions that improve stock flow and store performance.
- Continuously look for ways to improve planning processes, reporting, stock accuracy, replenishment, and execution.
- Take ownership of problems and follow through until they are resolved.
- Help create better structure, discipline, and consistency in inventory planning across the business.
Required Skills & Experience
- Previous experience in apparel, footwear, fashion, retail planning, inventory planning, merchandising, or a similar role.
- Strong understanding of retail stock flow, store replenishment, size curves, allocations, and seasonal product planning.
- Understanding of planning principles from the ground up through to execution.
- Deep understanding of the working mechanics of inventory planning, including how sales, stock, replenishment, allocations, transfers, buying, store performance, ERP accuracy, and warehouse movements all connect.
- Strong problem-solving ability, with the ability to identify stock issues, understand the root cause, and recommend practical solutions.
- Experience working with ERP, stock management, POS, or retail systems.
- Strong Excel or Google Sheets skills are essential.
- Ability to analyse sales and stock data and turn it into practical actions.
- Good understanding of retail store operations.
- Strong attention to detail and accuracy.
- Good communication and follow-up skills.
- Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple priorities.
- Experience in footwear or apparel retail will be an advantage.
- Experience with size curves, store grading, replenishment models, and product performance analysis will be beneficial.
