How To Become A Merchandise Planner: What It Is and Career Path

What is a merchandise planner and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Merchandise planners are in charge of developing effective merchandise strategies for their company. They are responsible for creating sound financial plans that reduce company spending and increase overall profit.

The main duty is to track how existing product lines are selling and decide the next steps, such as drop a line or expand it. This involves creating a detailed analysis of sales records and customer service reports to consider if there are internal factors that could be causing poor sales performance, such as lack of employee knowledge or too high price points.

Many merchandise planners have a bachelor's degree in design, business, or marketing. In these programs, merchandisers develop the skills to track sales, create sales goals, research new product lines, and learn how to maintain a consistent brand image. Fortunately, many of the largest retail chains have clear career paths for how to move into the position of merchandise planner.

Relevant work experience may be required as per employer demands. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, merchandise planners made a mean annual income of $60,700. This can vary depending on the size of your retail store and its industry.

ScoreMerchandise PlannerUS Average

Salary

5.4

Avg. Salary $69,460

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.3

Growth rate 19%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.33%

Asian 6.07%

Black or African American 8.65%

Hispanic or Latino 15.90%

Unknown 4.56%

White 64.50%

Gender

female 62.94%

male 37.06%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

8.3

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.9

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a merchandise planner

Explore merchandise planner education requirements

Most common merchandise planner degrees

Bachelor's

82.1 %

Associate

8.4 %

Master's

7.7 %

Start to develop specific merchandise planner skills

Skills	Percentages
Gross Margin	7.71%
Strong Analytical	7.43%
Math	7.24%
Historical Data	7.00%
Open-To-Buy	5.90%

Complete relevant merchandise planner training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New merchandise planners learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a merchandise planner based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real merchandise planner resumes.

Research merchandise planner duties and responsibilities

Monitor and analyze planned assortments by door in order to achieve plan turn goals and ROI.
Manage purchase order logs to ensure plan receipts and IMU requirements are maintained in the department.
Complete training on the JDA planning and forecasting system to effectively manage the financial aspects of each department.
Implement and manage the E3 auto-replenishment system to optimize inventory levels of width-size shoes, core shoes and shoe accessories.

Prepare your merchandise planner resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your merchandise planner resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a merchandise planner resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable merchandise planner resume templates

Build a professional merchandise planner resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your merchandise planner resume.