Merchandising Planner

Music is Universal. It’s the passionate and dedicated team at Universal Music who help make us the world’s leading music company. From A&R to finance, legal to digital, sales to marketing, Universal Music is the place to grow and develop your career within a truly commercial and innovative business that leads in everything it does.

Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles, and we are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment because of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief, age, marital status, background, pregnancy, or caring responsibilities. We also recognise the importance of diversity of thought within our teams and are fully committed to embracing the talents of people with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, and other forms of neurocognitive variation. We will always seek to make appropriate adjustments to recruitment, workplaces, and work processes to be fully inclusive to people with different needs and working styles. If you need us to make any reasonable adjustments for you from application onwards, including alternatives to the online form or to disclose a neurocognitive condition, please email UniversalMusicCareers@umusic.com.

The A Side: A Day in The Life

UMUK value e-Commerce as a key foundational channel to connect artists and fans. This is a fast-paced role overseeing our merchandise product strategy across the UMG roster. You will be principal merchandiser to help with forecasting, replenishing & suggested promo activity for our merchandise collections across our central and frontline labels and merchandise division. The business unit manages design & ideation of merchandise and manages a portfolio of ecommerce stores whilst providing a broad scope of services across eCommerce, Tour, VIP, Fan Clubs and Retail. You will work across the Direct to Consumer (D2C) roster and work closely with the Head of Planning as well as our label CFTS, brand Management, creative, Production and operations. This role is a vital part of the eCommerce growth strategy and will oversee a full merchandise strategy including product trends, analytics, and individual store forecasts.

The B Side: Skills & Experience

• You will work closely with our Brand Managers & label Ecomm Product Managers to plan & buy product ranges, manage stock levels & budgets.
• Analyse our collection ranges looking for trends to forecast out sales, daily unit cadence, stock cover, top up opportunities and profit margins on sales history & growth opportunities.
• Delve into product KPI’s; clicks, conversion, days online, sell through and PLP position.
• Communicating with our Store Managers with recommendations for merchandising of stores where we have recently topped up products or if products have high stock & had minimal visibility.
• Support development of our labels a marketing and promotion calendar and manage planning lifecycle of products.
• Manage the evergreen merchandising strategy for specific artist stores and collections.
• Price & SWOT analysis across product types.
• Factory and supplier visits with the N1C production team.
• Competitor analysis around; product set, price and promotion.
• Communicate inventory needs with Senior Director of Ecommerce, label, brand management, supply chain and production teams to plan against upcoming product lines and marketing.
• Initiate buy - gaining financial approval and processing with in-house creative & production team.
• Communicate incoming buys and timelines to key stakeholders for each store.

Person Specification

• Extensive experience within a merchandising role, preferably within the fashion industry.
• Strong analytical and numerical skills.
• Strong organizational skills, with ability to successfully prioritize and manage multiple accountabilities simultaneously.
• Experience with forecasting & demand planning across a high volume of styles & SKUs.
• Highly proficient within Microsoft Excel pivot tables, vlookups.
• Good decision making skills.
• Ability to work well under pressure & manage multiple projects/tasks with competing deadlines.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills.
• BQ and Looker studio experience desirable.
• Ability to work within and across multiple cross functional teams, collaborating with a range of commercial and commerce stakeholders.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality.
• Strongly proactive - advising labels on buys, replen and promo in a timely fashion to maximise sales.
• Ability to interact with outside partners and executive management.

About UMG UK

We are Universal Music Group UK – the UK’s leading music-based entertainment company. We exist to shape culture through the power of artistry. We help UK artists produce, distribute and promote the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful music to inspire and entertain fans at home and around the world.

Bonus Tracks: Your Benefits

• Group Personal Pension Scheme (between 3% and 9%).
• Private Medical Insurance.
• 25 paid days of annual leave.
• Interest Free Season Ticket Loan.
• Holiday Purchase scheme.
• Dental and Travel Insurance options.
• Cycle to Work Scheme.
• Salary Sacrifice Cars.
• Subsidised Gym Membership.
• Employee Discounts (Reward Gateway).

Just So You Know… The company presents this job description as a guide to the major areas and duties for which the jobholder is accountable. However, the business operates in an environment that demands change and the jobholder's specific responsibilities and activities will vary and develop. Therefore, the job description should be seen as indicative and not as a permanent, definitive, and exhaustive statement.