Merchandise Planner

Why join us?

At Design Within Reach, home comes first.  We believe in creating and sourcing pieces that move with you and are meant to be enjoyed over a lifetime – from home to home, generation to generation. For us, that means exceptionally crafted, built-to-last, and beautifully designed furnishings.

Our purpose is design for the good of humankind. It’s the ideal we strive toward each day in everything we do. Being a part of Design Within Reach means being a part of something larger than your work team, or even your brand. We are redefining modern for the 21st century. And our success allows Design Within Reach to support causes that align with our values, so we can build a more sustainable, equitable, and beautiful future for everyone.

APMEA Retail Merchandise Planning Manager - Job Description

Job title

APMEA Retail Merchandise Planner

Department

Global Retail Operations

Reports to

Senior Director of Global Retail Merchandise Planning

Location

Hybrid: Tokyo Japan

Job summary

The APMEA Retail Merchandise Planner is a newly created role to drive growth in Herman Miller’s retail business, focusing on the Asia Pacific region with potential to expand to the Middle East and Africa regions.  Skilled in business analyses and inventory management, the role will collaborate closely with the APMEA retail business teams, Finance and Operations to drive both financial performance and operational efficiency.  The ideal candidate is self-directed – able to operate independently and proactively – and innately possesses an innovative, “builder” mindset and skillset, as the role involves building, establishing and evolving processes and tools.   

Specific responsibilities

• Merchandise Financial Planning:
  • Reviewing business performance weekly and variances to target/forecasts, conducting analyses to understand underlying drivers and trends
  • Surfacing merchandising opportunities, such as changes to assortments, pricing/promotions and visual presentation, as well as inventory/supply chain opportunities, to drive sales and margin
  • Providing analyses to estimate the impact of promotions and other potential actions
  • Collaborating with cross functional partners to drive and support execution of actions
  • Inseason reforecasting of the sales, margin and inventory targets to reflect trends and changes
  • Presenting findings and facilitating discussion with the business teams and Finance partner/s in regular meetings

• Inventory Management: Own the productivity of inventory housed in the APMEA warehouses, minimizing inventory liability while supporting sales.  Specific activities include:
  • Partnering with the business leaders to define and operationalize criteria to determine which items should be stocked in the warehouses versus made to order
  • Maintaining the appropriate level of inventory for each warehouse’s stocked items, forecasting sales and placing buys as needed
  • Partnering with Operations team/s to place buys and track status of inventory
  • Collaborating with Finance to define and maintain a receipt budget
  • Monitoring the level and composition of inventory in the warehouses, providing reporting and surfacing action when needed (e.g. promo opportunity, clearance sales, inventory moves between warehouses)
  • Partner with Senior Director on a monthly check-in with leadership (e.g. via an “Open to Buy” meeting) to share latest sales, margin and inventory forecasts and updates on the state of inventory and business

• Store Inventory Strategy and Execution: Partner with the APMEA stores team, Store Design, Merchandising and Operations teams to determine the assortment for each of the stores and execute accordingly.  Specific activities include:
  • Providing analyses to help determine which items should be displayed in stores, and which, if any, should be stocked and sellable in stores
  • Working with Operations to procure inventory and send to stores; and then disposing of product that will no longer be on display/in stock in stores

Company requirements

Health & Safety; ensure that safe working practices are followed. Attend safety briefings, as requested. Take responsibility for your own, employees, contractors and visitor safety in accordance with The Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, and The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulation 1999.

Compliance; ensure compliance with business systems, processes, certification schemes, regulations and legislation relevant to the scope of your role. Support internal quality controls and audits to demonstrate compliance.

Job holder requirements

• 6+ years of business experience, including
  • 4+ years working in a Retail business (stores and eComm); experience with wholesale clients a plus
  • 4+ years in a role involving business analyses and forecasting, particularly on product level
  • 4+ years in a role involving inventory management, with deep understanding of relationship between inventory, sales and margin and wide experience in inventory management processes and tools
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• Data-driven mindset with a passion for leveraging data and analyses to discover opportunities and drive action
• Highly skilled in Excel and strong ability to learn analytical/reporting tools quickly.  Prior experience with PowerBI and/or Tableau is a plus
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal
• Desire and ability to work with business partners from a wide range of functions, levels and geographies
• Ability and propensity for process improvement, with passion and experience in surfacing process opportunities, designing process improvement solutions, securing buy in from stakeholders and rolling out
• Proactive and self-directed, with ability to work independently, as well as ability to work evening hours to accommodate working hours in Asia.

Company values

We are difference-makers - Our products and our approach to business make a difference in the lives of our customers, our neighbours, and people around the world.

We are all extraordinary - By celebrating what makes every individual unique and valuable, we help one another reach our fullest potential

We are better together - Our culture of accountability, inclusivity, and high-performance creates strong teams and unifies our family of brands

Signed

______________________________________   Date _______________________

Post holder

______________________________________   Date _______________________

Manager

Updated by:

Patti DeMarco

Date:

11.20.25

Who We Hire?

Simply put, we hire qualified applicants representing a wide range of backgrounds and abilities. Design Within Reach is comprised of people of all abilities, gender identities and expressions, ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations, veterans from every branch of military service, and more. Here, you can bring your whole self to work. We’re committed to equal opportunity employment, including veterans and people with disabilities.

MillerKnoll complies with applicable disability laws and makes reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact MillerKnoll Talent Acquisition at  careers_help@millerknoll.com.