In-Season Trader
Role Purpose:
To drive and optimise in-season trading performance across banners and countries by aligning sales, stock, and assortment decisions with real-time data insights. The role acts as the central trading link between Buying, Planning, VM, Logistics, and Retail Operations to maximise sell-through, ensure optimal product availability, and improve profitability through effective inventory management, allocation, and cross-functional collaboration.
What you will do:
Building an In-Season Trading community
- Act as the key point of contact for trading across multiple departments, including buying, planning, marketing, logistics, and retail operations.
- Drive collaboration and ensure that trading strategies are integrated into broader business objectives.
- Assist the Planning Manager to test and scale new tools/WoW across different banners.
- Stay updated with industry best practices, new technologies, and trading methodologies.
- Continuously identify opportunities to improve trading processes, tools, and systems for more efficient and effective trading operations.
- Drive cross-functional projects aimed at improving processes and delivering improved business outcomes.
- Develop and lead the in-season trading strategy for the assigned banners, ensuring that the strategy aligns with the company’s business goals.
Sales and Inventory Strategy
- Oversee sales performance and inventory management across multiple banners/countries, ensuring optimal stock levels and maximising profitability
Inventory Management:
- Work closely with the buying and planning teams to ensure optimal inventory levels across stores
- Make recommendations for markdowns to optimize stock levels and minimize stockouts or excess inventory
- Work on new replenishment tools to ensure accurate stock allocation and replenishment across countries
Assortment Optimization
- Collaborate with the buying and planning teams to analyse the performance of individual products and categories
- Recommend assortment adjustments, product substitutions, or exit strategies to optimize sales and meet customer demand
Manage Inventory Intake
- Work closely with Supply chain administration, to monitor & manage inventory intake from Suppliers
- Collaborate with logistics to ensure timely product delivery and stock availability
Advanced Reporting and Insights
- Lead the preparation of detailed reports for senior managers, providing actionable insights and long-term recommendations based on sales, stock, and profitability analysis.
- Analyse sales data, customer insights, and product performance metrics to provide actionable recommendations for assortment adjustments and promotional activities.
- Implements inter-store transfers and Never Out of Stock (NOS) coverage tracking.
How you will be measured:
Business Targets
- Allocation accuracy (based on store grading/profiles)
- Inter-store transfer effectiveness (volume moved vs sell-through impact)
- Weeks of stock by store/channel/category
- Sell-through uplift from reallocations
- Product availability (minimize out-of-stocks / overstocks)
- Coverage of NOS lines
Stakeholder Engagement
- Effective collaboration with Visual Merchandisers to ensure VM strategies are effectively rolled out in each store in a timely manner.
- Effective collaboration with Buyers and Planners to ensure accuracy of OTB.
Competencies required:
- Strategic planning
- Analytical mindset
- Problem solving skills
- Self-motivated
- Strong collaboration skills / Team player
- Effective communication skills
- Business acumen
What you will bring to the role:
- Degree/Diploma in business administrator or engineering is a plus.
- Previous experience (1-2 years) in a trading, merchandising, or inventory management role.
- Ability to interpret data and trends.
- Proficiency in planning and inventory management systems. Knowledge of pricing tools and analytics software is a plus.
- Ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
- Familiarity with retail planning, product lifecycle, and fashion retail processes is a plus.
