Merchandising Intern in London

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.

We are offering a 12-month internship at one of our two Ralph Lauren Head offices located in Watford or New Bond Street, London. The successful candidate will provide integral operational support to the Merchandising team, to ensure we achieve our department financial plans, and our seasonal strategies are realized from inception all the way to implementation in store. The successful candidate should be prepared to travel to one of these offices regularly and be available for a full year.

• Operation/Financial Update reports on a weekly, monthly, and ad hoc basis.
• Attends and prepares for weekly trade meetings, over time being able to formulate and deliver a trade message independently.
• Provides accurate data to support analysis such as size or colour performance.
• Owns the departments line cards, which are style level forecasting documents in excel.
• Forecasting sales units and the inventory to ensure it is never out of stock.
• Systematically updates seasonal recodes which are the styles we carry from one season to the next.
• Owns department stock delivery schedule and communicates updates including early deliveries or delays.
• Assists with seasonal markdowns & communication to stores.
• Tracks and monitors Distribution Center (DC) available inventory for the product group, maximizing sales to stock ratios and turn.
• Executes the release of initial product distributions and in season replenishment to stores.
• Monitors and ensures full size availability of best sellers, continuity lines and seasonal products in stores in order to maximise sell through.

Commercial Awareness:

• Participate in regular store visits, collating store reports prior and assisting in creating follow up presentations.
• To undertake competitor visits on a regular basis and feedback any relevant points.

Training and Development:

• To adopt a positive and proactive approach to their own training and development as well as that of their peers.
• Proactively promotes improvements to working practices and systems.
• Participates in company initiatives as appropriate.

Communications & Partnerships:

• Creates and maintains strong working relationships within cross-functional teams: Buying, Allocations, RLE (our website team) and the retail store teams.
• Liaises with Assortment Planning and Buying partners to review and assist in the formation of the seasonal lessons learnt.
• Influencing future buys, using analysis and historical data to ensure commercial decisions are made.
• Communicates initial release and replenishment strategies within cross functional team.
• Participates in cross functional meetings, contributing input on distribution strategies.

Commercial and Analytical:

• Able to work on own initiative and be pro-active.
• Able to demonstrate logical analysis and problem-solving skills.
• Able to organize, prioritise tasks and manage time well in order to meet deadlines.
• Demonstrates good listening, written and oral communication skills, effectively and clearly communicates.
• Able to build and maintain productive relationships within team environment.
• Microsoft application skills, particularly Excel.
• Shows ability or aptitude in retail mathematics and able to learn technical applications quickly.
• Able to demonstrate resilience and remain positive during challenging periods.