Senior Merchandiser / Demand Planner (D2C / E-Com)

Role Overview

The Senior E‑Commerce Merchandise / Demand Planner is responsible for balancing customer demand with inventory supply by combining data‑driven forecasting with commercial insight, to ensure the right products are available at the right time to support marketing campaigns, customer demand, and international growth.

The role sits at the intersection of e‑commerce trading, digital marketing, merchandising and supply chain planning, working closely with Finance / NPD / E-Com teams to develop ‘bottom-up’/‘top-down’ annual plans, whilst using existing sales and market intel to drive NPD / product range direction, and in-season trading opportunities.

Focusing on optimizing our up-front / inbound demand forecast by product / region / sales channel, you will translate annual forecasts into supplier plans, optimizing lead-times / stock holding and pre-shipment destination sales regions / channels inventory plan, to minimise airfreight and out-bound logistic stock movements, to reduce COGs / Fulfilment costs.

The role also plays a critical part in managing stock optimization, cash flow and working capital, OTB targets, stock promo recommendations, and SKU level performance / attribution, working with the Head of Supply Chain to implement key sign-off / trading meeting cadence and KPI tracking / management.

Key Responsibilities

Demand Planning & Forecasting

· Own and develop annual / in-season SKU‑level and category‑level demand forecasts across D2C websites, marketplaces, and digital channels, working closely with Finance / E-Com teams to integrate demand signals from planned / historical promo activity.

· Integrate digital demand signals such as website traffic, conversion rates, marketing spend and promotional calendars.

· Maintain rolling forecasts aligned with financial and growth targets.

· Monitor forecast accuracy and improve forecasting models, using Trtl’s bespoke planning tool (Lumina).

· Contribute to forecasting system rules and guardrails, balancing availability, and cash flow / stock covers.

· Manage annual / monthly supplier forecasts and lead-times / stock holding and capture key metrics; OTIF, lead-time as well as overall ‘profitability’ metrics based on COGs / commercial performance.

In-Season Trading & Inventory Management

· Manage Open‑to‑Buy budgets, purchasing recommendations and intake planning for Core / NOOS and NPD lines.

· Ensure optimal inbound stock levels across global fulfilment networks, by reflecting demand changes in stock selling channel / region destinations, prior-to shipment from forwarder.

· Balance availability with ‘inventory health’ to minimise stockouts and excess inventory.

· Work with Head of Supply Chain to set KPIs and targets for stock cover (overall / by SKU), closing stock, COGs, OTIF, lead-time, etc.

· Support launch planning and replenishment strategies, working closely with the NPD team on new product launches / NPD calendar, and synching across the business.

· Work closely with Marketing teams to identify promo opportunities to support clearance of over-stock / slow sellers, providing recommendations to maximise profitability based on stock location by sales channel / region.

Commercial Strategy & Trading Alignment

· Initiate Supply Chain / Stock updates into Trading meetings (weekly/monthly), pro-actively flagging impacts on sales plans and providing remediating actions, to mitigate risk.

· Support seasonal planning, launches and key trading events, whilst aligning in-season inventory planning with marketing campaigns and promotional peaks.

· Ensure that ‘ad-hoc’ promo events proposed by internal marketing teams and external agencies are integrated into the weekly forecast / WSSI.

· Propose forecast / budget increases by SKU, whilst managing underperforming SKU stock / covers, in line with overall forecast set by Finance / Marketing.

· Establish an effective ‘test and trial’ model for OTB, working closely with NPD and marketing team to identify product / sales trends, and integrating market intelligence from websites, eg Kalodata, Particl

Reporting & Data Analysis

· Establish weekly / monthly ‘BAU’ KPIs and dashboards, based on company growth / sales strategy and KPIs / metrics.

· Produce ‘ad-hoc’ data‑driven insights and ‘modelling’ to support commercial decision‑making / new GTM strategies.

· Analyse sales and profitability performance across markets and product categories, producing performance metrics for key SKU attributes, IE colour, style, fabric etc.

· Monitor performance of NPD lines Vs Core lines in LFL categories, adjusting forecast accordingly, to optimize mix of stock and NPD growth plans.

· Present forecasting insights and inventory performance to stakeholders.

Key Success Metrics (First 6 Months).

· Improve ‘pre-shipment’ forecast accuracy across core / NOOS product categories. (Measure will be improved COGs via increase in sea freight shipments / stock transfer %’s)

· Establish and manage optimal stock cover targets by weeks / value.

· Maintain high product availability while improving inventory health, aligning metrics with stock cover KPIs.

· Increase sell‑through rates and reduce excess inventory exposure, through promo recommendations.

· Align inventory planning with marketing campaigns and product launches.

What We’re Looking For

· 7+ years in demand planning, merchandise planning in a fast-paced retail / trading environment.

· Background in D2C, e‑commerce, retail, or FMCG environments.

· Strong understanding of D2C / Ecom demand drivers and ability to integrate these into in-season inventory plans.

· Experience with ERP or planning systems, including set-up / implementation of planning ‘rules’ / guardrails and ‘building out’ capability with ERP providers.

· Strong analytical and commercial mindset.

· Excellent stakeholder communication and cross‑functional collaboration skills.

Nice to Have

· Experience planning inventory across international e‑commerce markets.

· Marketplace experience (e.g., Amazon, Tik Tok Shop).

· Experience with Shopify or D2C e‑commerce platforms.

· Experience with BI tools for reporting and analytics.

· Experience in a high‑growth start‑up or scale‑up environment.

· A travel lover with knowledge and passion for the travel and lifestyle space.