About IndiMade Brands
At IndiMade Brands, we empower passionate makers to build and grow thriving businesses. As the industry leader in handmade supplies and ingredients, we proudly support over one million small businesses through trusted products, innovative solutions, and exceptional customer service. Our family of brands — Wholesale Supplies Plus, Nature’s Garden, and The Flaming Candle — delivers the tools, inspiration, and community entrepreneurs need to succeed. Guided by our values of integrity, innovation, and impact, we are committed to helping makers thrive while shaping the future of the craft industry.
About the Role
IndiMade Brands is hiring our first Planning Manager to lead enterprise merchandise planning and demand forecasting across all brands and product categories. This is a newly created role designed to build and centralize the planning function while helping the business scale.
This role is ideal for a builder — someone excited by the opportunity to create processes, reporting, tools, and operational structure from the ground up while managing a dynamic, in-season business. The Senior Planning Manager will partner closely with Merchandising, Finance, and Operations teams to improve forecasting accuracy, inventory productivity, in-stock performance, and Open-to-Buy discipline across the organization.
IndiMade Brands operates with a high SKU count across three brands that, while related, each require tailored planning strategies rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. NetSuite and Quick Lizard are currently live across some brands and still being implemented in others, creating a unique opportunity for this role to help shape future-state planning capabilities and best practices.
Key Responsibilities
Build & Lead the Planning Function
- Create and lead the centralized enterprise merchandise planning and demand forecasting function across all brands and categories.
- Define and implement scalable planning processes, reporting cadences, forecasting methodologies, and operational best practices.
- Develop planning tools, KPI frameworks, dashboards, and reporting that improve visibility into sales, inventory, margin, and business performance.
- Lead planning system capabilities and workflow improvements within NetSuite, Quick Lizard, and related planning tools.
- Identify opportunities for automation, standardization, and process efficiency across planning and inventory management workflows.
- Lead and develop planning team capabilities, including direct management of a Planning Coordinator.
Forecasting, Inventory & Financial Planning
- Own consolidated enterprise sales, inventory, and demand forecasts across all brands and product categories.
- Partner closely with Merchandising to develop item-, category-, and brand-level forecasts that support enterprise financial plans.
- Build and manage annual and seasonal merchandise financial plans across sales, units, margin, and inventory.
- Own the Open-to-Buy process, including inventory investment strategies, purchase timing, and forecasting discipline.
- Develop inventory strategies that balance growth, margin, inventory health, and operational efficiency across seasonal, core, and replacement businesses.
- Monitor inventory and forecast performance to proactively identify risks, liabilities, and opportunities.
Business Insights & Assortment Optimization
- Deliver clear, actionable analyses and business insights that support assortment decisions, inventory investments, pricing actions, and long-range planning.
- Create and standardize Weekly Business Review (WBR) reporting and executive-level business performance dashboards.
- Lead SKU productivity analysis, assortment optimization, and rationalization initiatives across brands and categories.
- Partner with Merchandising leadership to support pricing and promotional strategies that align with sales, inventory, and margin objectives.
What You Bring
- 5–10 years of merchandise planning, demand forecasting, or inventory planning experience within a multi-brand, e-commerce, DTC, wholesale, or specialty retail environment.
- Proven experience building or significantly improving planning processes, tools, reporting, and operational structure.
- Strong financial acumen with experience managing sales, inventory, margin, forecasting, and Open-to-Buy processes.
- Advanced Excel skills and experience working with ERP systems, planning tools, inventory management platforms, and business analytics/reporting tools.
- Experience with NetSuite, Quick Lizard, or comparable planning and pricing systems preferred.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate data into actionable business decisions.
- Effective cross-functional leadership and communication skills with the ability to influence partners across Merchandising, Finance, Operations, and Supply Chain.
- Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, evolving environment with a high degree of ownership and accountability.
Reporting Structure & Location
- Reports to: VP of Merchandising
- Direct Reports: Planning Analyst
- Location: Hybrid for candidates in the Cleveland area; remote candidates will also be considered.