Senior Analyst, Price and Markdown Optimization

Walgreens•Deerfield, IL

About The Position

Responsible for analyzing and creating data-driven recommendations to Category Managers for retail prices or markdown (exit) strategies for items, categories, and markets/stores to optimize profit, drive sales and sell-through, and increase market share while improving consumer value image. Forecasts and evaluates the impact of pricing decisions and balance of sales using variables like elasticity, competitive data and indexing, and category role. Communicates price and/or markdown recommendations to Category Managers, Category Insights, Store Operations, and/or other cross-functional teams and seeks approval from key clients in Merchandising. May help with strategic project-based initiatives or ad hoc analyses to recommend innovation options to drive business strategy, including key value item identification and analysis and calibration of pricing tools to achieve company financial goals.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree and at least 1 year of experience in promotions, marketing, retail, analytics, pricing, consumer packaged goods, insights, vendor collaboration, consumer research, inventory, category management and/or business analysis or High School/GED and at least 4 years of experience in promotions, marketing, retail, analytics, pricing, consumer packaged goods, insights, vendor collaboration, consumer research, inventory, category management and/or business analysis.
Experience with MS Office Suite.
Experience using time management skills such as prioritizing/organizing and tracking details and meeting deadlines of multiple projects with varying completion dates.
Experience analyzing and reporting data in order to identify issues, trends, or exceptions to drive improvement of results and find solutions.
Experience collaborating with internal and external resources to develop strategies that meet department goals within budget and established timelines.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree OR MBA
Experience with Revenue management or Pricing analysis, inventory management, and/or reviewing and analyzing retail data (such as Nielsen, IRI, etc.).
Intermediate level skill in SQL (create complex queries using nested SELECT statements, simplify queries by creating new views, deleting and altering tables, using Boolean logic, working with NULL values, constructing queries, etc.)
Experience writing macros.
Experience with price or markdown optimization software.
Experience developing and delivering presentations to various audience levels within an organization.
Experience leading strategic projects and proactively coming up with process improvements.
Experience with project management (for example: planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives).
Experience establishing & maintaining relationships with individuals at all levels of the organization, in the business community & with vendors.

Responsibilities

Ensures problematic issues for key initiatives are tracked, summarized and presented to management.
Anticipates and prevents problems and roadblocks before they occur.
Forecasts the impact of price changes (at category, item, and/or store/zone level) to make sure they align with category strategy, and recommends price or pricing strategy adjustments.
Performs ad hoc reporting as needed on price changes, markdown performance, and competitive indexing with the support of the Category Insights team.
Analyze competitive activity and presents results to gain knowledge and understanding of our competitors’ pricing activity.
May identify distressed inventory and delivers markdown scenarios that drive increased profitable sell through, including managing lifecycle of items as they are discontinued to ensure proper exit path.
Monitors and adjusts plans that are in flight to reach optimal profit and inventory targets.
May lead cross-functional work across Merchandising, Store Operations, Finance, and Supply Chain to deliver optimal solutions for discontinued and distressed inventory.
Develops and improves standard pricing or markdown report templates, presentations, methodologies, and processes.
Identifies and analyzes pricing for special groups of items (e.g. Known Value Items, National Brand/Private Brand relationship items) and stores (e.g. different regions) to align with corporate strategy and category role.
Presents recommendations to key internal clients and management, including Pricing managers, Category Managers, and store operations.
Attends client meetings to understand business needs and objectives.
Identifies opportunities and makes appropriate recommendations to improve processes and/or operating efficiencies.
May perform as customer advocate.
Collaborates cross-functionally to accomplish activities.
Interacts with internal and external peers and/or managers to exchange semi-complex information related to assigned activities.
Constructively challenges current methods to identify areas of improvement and deliver improved results.
Participates in and contributes to departmental meetings by adding relevant input to assist in driving program results.
Works on variable-sized project and may lead some project work streams, as necessary.
Ensures project initiatives are completed within budget and on time to meet business units’ needs.
May design specifications of assigned initiatives and may lead in implementation.
Become actively involved, as required, to meet schedules and resolve problems.
Mentors less experienced team members.
May participate in teaching and training members of the work team.