Company Overview:
Born in Los Angeles, Cult Gaia is known for creating beautiful heirloom pieces designed to live in your closet forever. The cornerstone of Cult Gaia’s DNA is crafting objects d’art that make you look twice. Since its inception, Cult Gaia has expanded from accessories into a full lifestyle brand, offering ready-to-wear, shoes, and more.
Position Overview:
We are seeking a Planner to drive strategic planning, inventory optimization, and sales growth for our wholesale business. This role will be critical in ensuring our retail partners receive the right products at the right time while maximizing sales and minimizing excess inventory. The Wholesale Planner will work cross-functionally with sales, merchandising, logistics, and operations teams to manage orders, allocations, and fulfillment strategies. This mid-senior level position reports to the Sr. Director of Planning.
Key Responsibilities:
Inventory & Sales Planning:
- Develop and execute seasonal and long-term demand forecasts based on historical data, market trends, and sales insights.
- Partner with sales and merchandising teams to create an assortment strategy that aligns with wholesale business objectives.
- Monitor and optimize inventory levels to ensure stock availability while minimizing overstock risks.
- Conduct sell-through analysis by account and product category, providing recommendations for replenishments and markdowns.
- Own and maintain seasonal projections: OTB for retail accounts and style/fabric projections for production.
- Support and maintain yearly and seasonal category sales plans by forecasting inventory budgets, sales, projected dilutions (RTV, Discounts, MD), and margins.
- Split production POs between warehouse locations to fulfill all wholesale orders.
Wholesale Planning & Operations:
- Work closely with wholesale sales teams to manage orders, allocations, and fulfillment strategies.
- Analyze account performance to identify growth opportunities and liabilities, making recommendations to drive sales.
- Develop and action comprehensive allocation strategies to align with customer order dates, requested ship dates, available inventory, and arriving product.
- Collaborate with logistics and operations teams to ensure timely delivery and execution of wholesale orders.
- Approve reorder/recut POs and coordinate timing with Production and Merchandising teams.
- Monitor past cancel orders and work with sales on actioning extensions in NetSuite.
- Ensure transfer orders are executed between international warehouses in NetSuite.
- Support sales team during and post-market, including rolling up final inventory buy and adjusting purchase orders as necessary.
Order Management & Fulfillment:
- Own and manage wholesale planning and order processing daily.
- Maintain customer bookings, fill rates, shipping statuses, and handle exceptions such as product shortages, cancellations, and delays.
- Oversee receiving and allocation for two 3PL warehouses to ensure timely order fulfillment.
- Reconcile booking reports, past cancel orders, hold for confirmation, credit holds, oversold items, bulk orders, and return authorizations.
- Partner with sales and customer service to resolve allocation issues quickly.
- Manage returns processing, including coordinating returns, reviewing requests and pricing, and processing RAs per customer return policies.
- Communicate consistently with warehouses on in-season shipping and reorder shipping.
Reporting & Data Analytics:
- Create and maintain weekly, monthly, and seasonal sales reports to track performance and highlight risks/opportunities.
- Develop and track KPIs for wholesale performance, including sales targets, sell-through rates, and margin optimization.
- Utilize data-driven insights to enhance pricing, promotions, and product allocation strategies.
- Work with BI tools and ERP systems to streamline reporting and improve data accuracy.
Qualifications & Skills:
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Operations, or related field.
- 3+ years of experience in wholesale planning, retail analytics, demand forecasting, or inventory management in fashion, accessories, or luxury retail.
- Strong analytical skills with expertise in Excel (advanced functions, pivot tables, macros).
- Experience with ERP and inventory management systems (e.g., NetSuite, Shopify, JOOR, NuORDER, Skypad).
- Understanding of seasonal buying cycles, replenishment strategies, and margin management.
- Ability to interpret large datasets and translate insights into actionable business strategies.
- Strong problem-solving skills and ability to build predictive models for demand planning.
- Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
- Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to distill complex data into clear insights for cross-functional teams.
- Detail-oriented, analytical, and solution-oriented, with a proactive approach to problem-solving.
- Experience working with international and domestic accounts (Saks, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, etc.).
- Calm and confident under pressure, maintaining a friendly disposition while working in a dynamic, ever-changing environment.
What We Offer:
- Medical, Dental, Vision & Dependent Coverage
- 401K with company match
- Life Insurance
- Pet Insurance
- PTO
- Paid Sick Leave
- Clothing Allowance
- Referral Program
