Merchandise Planner

Overview

The Merchandise Planner owns end-to-end demand forecasting, inventory planning, and replenishment execution for The Vitamin Shoppe's Amazon channel. This role is responsible for maintaining optimal weeks of supply targets, ensuring timely inbound replenishment, and proactively supporting sales growth across all SKU tiers within the Amazon marketplace

 

The ideal candidate is highly analytical, detail-oriented, and comfortable operating in a fast-paced environment where data-driven decisions directly impact revenue, margin, and customer experience. They will serve as the single point of accountability for Amazon inventory health and will integrate into the broader enterprise inventory cadence.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end demand planning for Amazon (FBA), building and maintaining SKU-level forecasts using historical trends, seasonality, promotional calendars, and market signals; incorporate Amazon-specific drivers such as advertising impact, deal events, and organic rank dynamics.
• Continuously evaluate forecast accuracy, bias, and model performance; refine assumptions and inputs to improve precision and responsiveness to demand shifts.
• Drive end-to-end replenishment execution, including purchase order planning, supplier coordination, and inbound shipment management to Amazon fulfillment centers; proactively manage lead times, delays, and variability.
• Develop and execute demand and inventory strategies for key events (Prime Day, BFCM, seasonal peaks), ensuring early readiness through aligned forecasts, inventory positioning, and capacity planning.
• Monitor and analyze performance through key metrics (In-Stock %, WOS, Inventory Turns, Fulfillment %, Aged Inventory); identify risks and opportunities and take corrective action to protect service levels and profitability.
• Maintain a forward-looking risk framework, identifying and mitigating issues such as supply delays, demand volatility, capacity constraints, and competitive pricing pressures.
• Perform unit economics and profitability analysis to ensure inventory decisions align with margin targets and financial goals.
• Partner cross-functionally with Merchandise Planning, Merchandising, Private Brands, Finance, and Operations to align Amazon inventory strategies with broader business objectives using an S&IOP approach.
• Leverage Relex, Amazon Seller Central, and BI tools to generate insights, improve decision-making, and enhance planning efficiency; identify opportunities to automate reporting, forecasting inputs, and workflows.
• Manage product lifecycle transitions, including phase-in and phase-out strategies, to optimize inventory flow and minimize obsolescence.

Qualifications

Skill and Ability:                                         

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Analytics, Statistics, or a related field (or equivalent combination of education and experience).
• 4-6 years of experience in demand planning, merchandise planning or inventory management, with direct Amazon FBA or marketplace experience strongly preferred.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to synthesize large data sets into actionable insights.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel.
• Hands-on experience with Amazon Seller Central (strongly preferred).
• Working knowledge of Relex or other demand planning/replenishment systems preferred.
• Outstanding organizational skills with superior attention to detail.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and shift between projects without a loss of overall quality.
• Proactive mindset with a bias toward action; identifies risks early and proposes solutions before they impact sales.

Equal Opportunity Policy

The Vitamin Shoppe is an equal opportunity employer. We respect diversity and accordingly are an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, sex, gender, gender identity or expression (including transgender status), sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, physical or mental disability, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.  Our management is dedicated to ensuring the fulfillment of this policy with respect to hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, separation, recruitment, pay and other forms of compensation, access to facilities and programs, training and general treatment during employment.

We firmly believe that every Health Enthusiast has the right to be treated with dignity and respect. Our goal is to maintain a satisfied and productive team of Health Enthusiasts. The keys to reaching that goal are effective leadership, equal application of fair human resources policies, competitive wages and benefits, and close attention to all health enthusiast matters. The Vitamin Shoppe is committed to the principle of fair and impartial treatment of our Health Enthusiasts.

Health Enthusiasts with questions or concerns about equal employment opportunities in the workplace are encouraged to bring these issues to the attention of their Human Resources representative.  We will not allow any form of retaliation against Health Enthusiasts who raise issues of perceived discrimination in good faith.  To ensure our workplace is free of artificial barriers, violation of this policy may result in disciplinary action, up to and including discharge.