Allocation Planner – Retail Inventory & Allocation Specialist

About the role

The Allocation Planner owns the end‑to‑end flow of inventory from distribution centers to stores across multiple categories. You will balance omni‑channel demand, maximize sales, and improve inventory productivity through data‑driven allocation strategies.

Key responsibilities

• Analyze pre‑season plans and merchandising strategies to assess downstream allocation impact.
• Translate top‑line buy strategies into actionable store‑level allocation plans, optimizing by style, color and demand patterns.
• Identify and execute in‑season allocation opportunities across e‑commerce and store channels.
• Monitor weekly inventory positions and adjust based on sales performance, pricing actions and emerging trends.
• Investigate inventory exceptions and forecast variances, providing root‑cause analysis and corrective actions.
• Partner with Merchandising, Planning and Visual teams to align weekly strategies and execution priorities.
• Provide in‑season insights on product performance at style, regional, district and store levels.
• Develop end‑of‑season analyses to uncover store‑level inventory and assortment opportunities.

Required profile

• Significant experience in retail allocation, managing inventory across multiple stores, channels or product categories.
• Strong understanding of allocation principles, inventory flow, replenishment and store‑level optimization.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including complex formulas, pivot tables and large‑dataset manipulation.
• Experience with allocation systems such as JDA/Blue Yonder or similar retail planning tools.
• Solid grasp of retail math and analytical acumen.

Required skills

• JDA/Blue Yonder Allocation (or similar retail planning tool)
• Microsoft Excel – advanced functions (VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, IF statements, SUMIFS/COUNTIF, nested formulas)
• Pivot Tables and data validation techniques
• Large dataset manipulation and data analysis