CATEGORY PLANNER RESUME EXAMPLE

Updated: July 31, 2024 - The Category Planner excels in strategizing and optimizing product lifecycle management through effective collaboration across departments. This role involves critical coordination with Demand Planning to address and rectify forecast discrepancies and ensure seamless product transitions and inventory management. Furthermore, the Category Planner supports the development and analysis of key performance indicators, enhancing supply chain efficiency and contributing to continuous improvement initiatives.

Tips for Category Planner Skills and Responsibilities on a Resume

1. Category Planner, Jackson Supplies, Fargo, ND

Job Summary:

  • Research product market sizes, margins and costs to confirm they will be good for business
  • Always consider ways to improve efficiency and systems
  • Monitor inventory, minimising both overstock and out of stock occurrences
  • Assist with and pioneering marketing initiatives as required
  • Monitor sales and financial performance as required
  • Professional experience/ qualification in related fields.
  • Competent with HTML, Wordpress & Microsoft Office Suite
  • Understand data and be able to make data driven decisions.
  • Ability to work across cultural and business styles in various countries.
  • Develop Standard Operating Procedures for all regular tasks involved.
  • Contribute to the success of CSG by leading or assisting with continuous improvement initiatives 


Skills on Resume:

  • Efficiency Specialist (Soft Skills)
  • Inventory Coordinator (Hard Skills)
  • Marketing Strategist (Soft Skills)
  • Digital Skills Expert (Hard Skills)
  • Data Analyst (Hard Skills)
  • Cross-Cultural Facilitator (Soft Skills)
  • SOP Developer (Hard Skills)

2. Category Planner, Central Goods, Missoula, MT

Job Summary:

  • Responsible for implementing and executing the cluster’s store strategies in the commercial market
  • Responsible for identifying the most productive use of agreed 10% Flexi changes
  • Responsible for Average Rep Sales & Gross Margin fulfilment every campaign
  • Responsible for setting up the offer prices in accordance with the commercial market needs & strategy
  • Responsible for performing a review of estimates against targets to identify gaps
  • Responsible for working with Demand Planning to review Campaign performance against plan and propose solutions to close gaps
  • Responsible for reviewing the financial statistics reports
  • Responsible for performing the final update to the Leader List following the statistics review meeting
  • Responsible for preparing and presenting in Campaign sign offs
  • Responsible for tracking marketing KPIs on campaign basis and take corrective actions


Skills on Resume:

  • Market Strategy Implementer (Hard Skills)
  • Flexi Strategy Analyst (Hard Skills)
  • Sales Margin Manager (Hard Skills)
  • Pricing Strategist (Hard Skills)
  • Performance Reviewer (Hard Skills)
  • Demand Planner (Hard Skills)
  • Financial Analyst (Hard Skills)
  • Marketing KPI Tracker (Hard Skills)

3. Category Planner, Atlantic Distributors, Charleston, SC

Job Summary:

  • Define the Sport & Kids wholesale range strategy in cooperation with purchasing 
  • Coordinate the marketplace assortment implementation
  • Responsible for the implementation of the annual planning for Sport & Kids and brief the online marketing team accordingly
  • Develop the online shops for area by optimizing the navigation, filter selection and product recommendations as well as continuously improving the data quality
  • Responsible for the development, planning and implementation of action plans to increase performance and achieve sales targets
  • Monitor the market and carry out analyzes of trends and customer needs
  • Responsible for reviewing campaign trend
  • Responsible for preparing contingency plans and business cases based on the trend report
  • Lead development of pricing strategy that supports profitable growth for the business
  • Define Pricing guidelines & framework by category (annually) to support delivering ARS & DP% targets whilst ensuring price competitiveness


Skills on Resume:

  • Range Strategy Developer (Hard Skills)
  • Assortment Coordinator (Hard Skills)
  • Annual Planning Manager (Hard Skills)
  • E-commerce Optimizer (Hard Skills)
  • Performance Strategist (Hard Skills)
  • Market Analyst (Hard Skills)
  • Campaign Reviewer (Hard Skills)
  • Pricing Strategy Leader (Hard Skills)

4. Category Planner, Summit Retail Solutions, Boise, ID

Job Summary:

  • Analyzes and develops Merchandise trends and strategies by Category/Region for the global business. 
  • Owns business recaps that identify trends across both Quay category and styles, at the regional level, to influence assortment 
  • Partners with Merchandising/Inventory teams to identify key business trends and opportunities
  • Able to develop business strategies needed based on findings 
  • Presents trend insight in Quay’s global weekly business review meetings that will inform future purchases and assortment strategies. 
  • Monitor and evaluate In Season business performance to develop forward looking inventory strategies that support key business objectives 
  • Support development of a tops-down global perspective on seasonal merchandise strategies
  • Partner with merchant team to collectively determine appropriate style counts for ongoing/future product 
  • Create monthly New Launch performance analysis to provide insight into current trends
  • Provide guidance to Design team for future developments
  • Owns the Category Inventory OTB (open to buy), provides guidance on sales forecast, receipts, and inventory levels to support sales forecast and maintain optimal inventory position 
  • Identify and recommend selling approaches for slow moving product considering Quay’s omni-channel disposition strategies 


Skills on Resume:

  • Trend Analyst (Hard Skills)
  • Business Recap Manager (Hard Skills)
  • Strategy Partner (Hard Skills)
  • Performance Monitor (Hard Skills)
  • Inventory Strategist (Hard Skills)
  • Merchandise Planner (Hard Skills)
  • Launch Analyst (Hard Skills)
  • OTB Manager (Hard Skills)

5. Category Planner, Prairie Home Products, Lincoln, NE

Job Summary:

  • Assume responsibility for completing projects with clear milestones
  • Ensure that the company’s protocols are respected and that they are coherent 
  • Gather execution information and details to keep a work schedule and dashboard up to date
  • Provide instructions to teams involved through written communications and meetings
  • Consult the Planogram, Supply Chain, Store Setup, Space Planning, Merchandising, and Operations Support departments about store changes
  • Provide expertise on the best way to plan and communicate project execution as well as in-store operational needs
  • Coordinate “test” planogram deployment in the lab (space reservation, version of the planogram to be executed, schedule, labour requirements, equipment (need and/or develop), signage, and planogram layout)
  • Provide project planning and execution expertise, which includes the ability to define expectations, develop work plans, communicate, and complete projects
  • Work towards reaching the milestones of various departments to achieve common goals
  • Work cross-functionally to manage and organize work processes, and ensure optimal workflow


Skills on Resume:

  • Project Milestone Manager (Hard Skills)
  • Protocol Compliance Officer (Hard Skills)
  • Dashboard Coordinator (Hard Skills)
  • Team Communication Lead (Soft Skills)
  • Department Consultant (Soft Skills)
  • Operational Planner (Hard Skills)
  • Planogram Coordinator (Hard Skills)
  • Workflow Manager (Soft Skills)

6. Category Planner, Coastal Supply Chain, Mobile, AL

Job Summary:

  • Work with Customer Service to manage customer expectations, find service solutions, and deliver feedback to the scheduling teams and BU. 
  • Ensure maintenance and consistency of shortage reports. 
  • Develop and maintain long inventory reports, and work on both root cause analysis and disposition of inventory, as well as corrective actions to limit future long inventory.
  • Review of projects within the PLM Process, and solicit feedback from across the Planning Team as appropriate. 
  • Ensures supply chain readiness including setup of materials within ERP systems, as well as communicates to the BU the availability of product.
  • Review the portfolio and support the identification of underperforming SKUs
  • Partnering with Commercial to improve efficiency across the network. 
  • Aid in the management of product exits/transitions.
  • Support other Supply Chain Planning functions both through analysis and reporting
  • Providing backup or supplementary coverage as seasonality or circumstances warrant.


Skills on Resume:

  • Customer Service Liaison (Soft Skills)
  • Reports Analyst (Hard Skills)
  • Inventory Analyst (Hard Skills)
  • PLM Reviewer (Hard Skills)
  • ERP System Coordinator (Hard Skills)
  • SKU Performance Analyst (Hard Skills)
  • Efficiency Partner (Soft Skills)
  • Supply Chain Supporter (Hard Skills)

7. Category Planner, Mountain View Essentials, Cheyenne, WY

Job Summary:

  • Identify, organize, resolve, and escalate project issues
  • Deal with problems immediately, contact other departments for help solving problems 
  • Collaborate with other departments to deliver the project
  • Promote a collaborative environment by working with a team
  • Solve problems and share information with peers, managers, and customers
  • Collaborate with Demand Planning to identify and resolve forecast issues at a SKU/Ship-to level, particularly related to conversions, discontinuations, or misses to forecast, and ensure appropriate actions are taken.
  • Provide inventory reporting to other functions including Commercial and Customer Service to support product lifecycle management activities.
  • Support the Supply Planning Team in developing and reporting KPIs, as well as with ad-hoc analysis, within and across BUs. 
  • Aid in presenting findings, and in execution of continuous improvement projects aimed at improving SCP performance.


Skills on Resume:

  • Issue Resolution Specialist (Hard Skills)
  • Interdepartmental Coordinator (Soft Skills)
  • Project Collaborator (Soft Skills)
  • Teamwork Promoter (Soft Skills)
  • Problem Solver (Soft Skills)
  • Demand Planner (Hard Skills)
  • Inventory Reporting Analyst (Hard Skills)
  • KPI Analyst (Hard Skills)

8. Category Planner, Gateway Logistics, Springfield, IL

Job Summary:

  • Perform market analysis using multiple tools/models, capture industry trends and patterns on portfolio, pricing and demand.
  • Act as “Single Point of Entry’ for Product Management on product related discussions and feedbacks.
  • Work with the Product Management to forecast sales of new products (as input to business cases).
  • Manage the product line list and product lifecycle (new launches, transitions, and/or discontinuation).
  • Prepare background information to support sales forecasting for product/market combinations.
  • Prioritize the forecasts, process ad-hoc request for data analysis and “what-if” scenarios.
  • Develop statistical forecasts, seasonality curves and size splits.
  • Identify and signal significant variances between sales forecasts, budgets, business plans and actuals.
  • Prepare and support the S&OP Demand Planning Phase (Plan, Do, Check, Act).
  • Ensure that the sales forecasting systems are used effectively.


Skills on Resume:

  • Market Analysis Expert (Hard Skills)
  • Product Liaison Officer (Soft Skills)
  • Sales Forecasting Analyst (Hard Skills)
  • Product Lifecycle Manager (Hard Skills)
  • Forecasting Support Specialist (Hard Skills)
  • Data Analysis Specialist (Hard Skills)
  • S&OP Planner (Hard Skills)
  • Forecasting Systems Manager (Hard Skills)

9. Category Planner, Riverbend Materials, Topeka, KS

Job Summary:

  • Sourcing high-quality suppliers for various products as requested by team lead
  • Liaising with these new and existing suppliers to ensure they meet requirements
  • Tidily tracking and analysing data in a supplier database
  • Helping team shortlist suppliers and make good decisions 
  • Communicating clearly and quickly with the team to keep everyone informed
  • Assisting in getting products ready to sell on local eCommerce platforms including sourcing and preparing listing materials
  • Working with team lead to speed up progress in any way, as required by team lead or manager
  • Assist in negotiating with suppliers
  • Research product categories and competitors to gain a thorough understanding of how to make team's brand successful
  • Research products to assist team in increasing inventory with high-potential products


Skills on Resume:

  • Supplier Sourcing Specialist (Hard Skills)
  • Supplier Relations Coordinator (Soft Skills)
  • Data Analyst (Hard Skills)
  • Supplier Selection Assistant (Soft Skills)
  • Team Communicator (Soft Skills)
  • eCommerce Support Specialist (Hard Skills)
  • Progress Facilitator (Soft Skills)
  • Market Research Analyst (Hard Skills)

10. Category Planner, Pioneer Merchandising, Pierre, SD

Job Summary:

  • Be involved in developing the rules for order acceptance and forecast consumption.
  • Measure, analyze, report and improve key performance indicators (KPIs) and monitor adherence to them. 
  • Creates full year and cross-category commercial bottom up budget to deliver the framework for pre-season category plans (growth rate, business mix, targeted margin, sales & inventory)
  • Develop pre-season product category plans with regard to sales, margin, productivity (exposures), (receipts, inventory level)
  • Liaise with Manager Category Planning to ensure airtime is being allocated to deliver the best result to the company across all areas.
  • Take lead role in the presentation of strategy roll up and Roadmap Review meeting.
  • Conduct brand/category portfolio analysis and guides Buyers & Planners on brand/category lifecycle strategies as well as brand/ category rotation
  • Proactively identify opportunities and hand off to the appropriate business partners (i.e. Buyers, Programmers, etc.)
  • Manage & ensure forecast accuracy in sales, margin, airtime, inventory projections at brand/product group level as well as for total roll-ups.
  • Conduct detailed & ongoing analysis of commercial KPIs to inform and guide Buyers & Planners on category performance & actions.


Skills on Resume:

  • Order Rules Developer (Hard Skills)
  • KPI Analyst (Hard Skills)
  • Budget Planner (Hard Skills)
  • Category Planning Manager (Hard Skills)
  • Airtime Allocation Coordinator (Hard Skills)
  • Strategy Presenter (Soft Skills)
  • Portfolio Analyst (Hard Skills)
  • Forecasting Manager (Hard Skills)