Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Volunteer Experience
Languages
Timeline
Generic
Prakruthi Sonny Babu

Prakruthi Sonny Babu

Toronto,ON

Summary

8+ years of retail experience in roles including Merchandise Planning, Merchandise Buying and Data Analysis.

Strongly self-motivated, reliable, well organized, and capable of working either alone, as part of, or the leader of the team.

Overview

8
8
years of professional experience

Work History

Associate Manager, Merchandise Financial Planning

Walmart
06.2022 - Current
  • Responsible for achieving OMNI sales and profit targets for a $230 million portfolio within womenswear supporting multiple Merchants and working in conjunction with other cross-functional partners (Demand Planning, Replenishment, and Merchandise Operations)
  • Successfully drove monthly OTB meetings, identifying 10% more business opportunities and mitigating 12% more business risks, resulting in a 3% increase in sales and a 2% increase in profit margin.
  • Responsible for building OMNI financial plans for merchandise categories by leveraging partnerships with cross-functional teams (Merchandising, Replenishment)
  • Preparing, revising, and executing category budgets (e.g., sales, markdowns, receipts), seasonal buy plans, and line review financials
  • Conducting analysis to discern business drivers and levers, and formulating and delivering financial recommendations to Merchants, Senior Merchants, and Directors of Merchandising.

Inventory Planning and Replenishment Analyst

Home Depot
05.2021 - 06.2022
  • Received the "Hard Hat Award" for Q4 2021 in recognition of outstanding performance for the quarter
  • Built financial plans to support Merchants and their assortment strategy across various financial metrics (Sales, Inventory, Markdown, and receipts)
  • Managed the forecasting and replenishment parameters of a department with high import penetration, average inventory of $102 Million and $420 Million in annual sales
  • Conduct monthly OTB meetings to highlight business opportunities or mitigate business risk to the senior leadership team
  • Track Key Performance Indicators on a weekly/Monthly/Quarterly, and Annual basis, including store/DC
  • Collaborate with internal stakeholders like the Merchandising Team, Finance, Marketing, DC, and Global sourcing Teams as well as External Stakeholders like vendors and Global Sourcing partners
  • Conduct post-season analysis to provide growth opportunities, risks, and guidance for the next season.
  • Identified slow-moving items for targeted promotions, effectively managing excess inventory levels while driving sales growth.
  • Reduced overstock situations by implementing a proactive markdown strategy based on item performance analysis.

Inventory Analyst

Pet Valu
12.2019 - 05.2021
  • Managed and analyzed inventory ordering requirements from vendors to distribution centers through to stores, ensuring optimum inventory levels to achieve sales targets and profit Margins across a $50Mn business
  • Successfully implemented techniques like ABC analysis to reduce stockouts and overstocking, achieving a 10% reduction in inventory costs within 12 months.
  • Developed and implemented a forecasting process to improve accuracy and reduce stockouts, resulting in a 15% improvement in forecasting accuracy within 9-12 months.
  • Automated 30% of manual processes (e.g., data entry, reporting) within 6-9 months, increasing efficiency and reducing errors.
  • Identify the root causes of issues such as out-of-stocks and aged inventory through the collection and analysis of data and provide recommended solutions
  • Forecast and plan the demand for import vendors with high lead time and ensure optimum inventory levels.
  • Presented 2-3 actionable insights to management within 6-9 months, resulting in process improvements, by analyzing data and providing recommendations.
  • Analyzed historical data and market trends to predict demand fluctuations, enabling proactive adjustments to inventory levels and minimizing the impact of supply chain disruptions.

Merchandise Planner

Landmark group
01.2017 - 01.2019
  • Build seasonal category OTB and manage the OTB process to meet sales, margin, and inventory turn targets
  • Manage category-level inventory receipt plans and the monthly receipt flow
  • Create sales and inventory plans for retail stores to meet the projected financial targets and company objectives
  • Create allocation and timely replenishment strategies for merchandise; to ensure that all product categories have adequate inventory against the norm- Inventory Management
  • Re-forecast business in-season based on current performance and present revised projections and recommendations to cross-functional partners every week
  • Ensured healthy stock rotation by offering promotions to clear slow-moving articles-EOSS, midseason sales, and slab offers
  • Create and plan optimal product assortments (item, color, size) for each product category based on seasonal trends and past sales data
  • Support planners with the "Weeks of Coverage" required to reach the expected service level and to assure appropriate product availability during the season.

Buying Intern

Shoppers stop
01.2017 - 07.2017
  • Analysis of merchandise mix in the menswear portfolio based on sales top and bottom-selling styles
  • Devised a buy plan for AW 18-19 based on the previous year's sale contribution and sell-through
  • Proposed marketing strategies for the brand Rocky Star based on customer feedback and brand reflection.
  • Facilitated smooth product launches through effective collaboration with marketing and merchandising teams.
  • Improved supplier performance by regularly reviewing deliveries against agreed-upon standards and promptly addressing discrepancies.
  • Collaborated with cross-functional teams to ensure timely delivery of products to stores and online platforms.
  • Analyzed sales data to identify trends and make informed decisions on inventory levels.
  • Conducted competitive analysis to maintain awareness of industry trends and pricing strategies.
  • Developed strong relationships with vendors, fostering trust and open communication channels for problem resolution.

Education

Masters in Retail Management -

National Institute of Fashion Technology
05.2017

Bachelors in Information Technology -

SRM University
05.2014

Skills

  • Merchandise Financial Planning
  • Cross Function Collaboration
  • Leadership
  • MFP (Financial planning tool)
  • Microsoft Office (MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, Word)
  • Oracle-RMS, BI Publisher, MDO
  • SAP- Forecasting and Replenishment
  • Visualization tools: Tableau and Power BI
  • Database systems: SQL
  • Forecasting
  • Negotiation
  • Budgeting and finance
  • Problem -Solving

Volunteer Experience

  • English Teacher, Step-Up for India, 07/01/17, 04/01/19, Step Up For India (SUFI) is a non-profit organization that enables short-time volunteers to teach underprivileged children by providing custom-designed, modular programs and support to make volunteer participation easy and effective
  • Animal Volunteer, People for Animals, 01/01/17, 04/01/17, Played a pivotal role in organizing adoption drives across the city with a record of getting 21 puppies, 12 Kittens and 6 Dogs adopted in a total of 6 drives

Languages

English
Native or Bilingual

Timeline

Associate Manager, Merchandise Financial Planning

Walmart
06.2022 - Current

Inventory Planning and Replenishment Analyst

Home Depot
05.2021 - 06.2022

Inventory Analyst

Pet Valu
12.2019 - 05.2021

Merchandise Planner

Landmark group
01.2017 - 01.2019

Buying Intern

Shoppers stop
01.2017 - 07.2017

Masters in Retail Management -

National Institute of Fashion Technology

Bachelors in Information Technology -

SRM University

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Prakruthi Sonny Babu