Nicole Kramer Email and Phone Number

Lead the merchandise planning and operational teams for a $1.6B business. Partner with Senior Leadership to develop and execute strategic plans to deliver division sales and margin goals.Develop planning and allocation strategies to ensure assortments, receipt flow, inventory levels and allocation direction meet store needs and deliver financial results. Lead budget, forecasting and other strategic planning meetings to maximize sales trends and execute inventory control direction. Develop and retain a high performing team by providing direct and honest feedback, eliminating obstacles, providing solutions and creating growth opportunities.

Led a team of 20 planning and allocation managers and specialist who ensure all financial and assortment strategies are developed, analyzed and executed to drive sales and margin while efficiently managing inventory risks and opportunities. Successfully led the entire planning and allocation team (75+ associates) through a reorganization. Redefined roles and responsibilities, communicated expectations, ensured consistencies where possible to minimize sales risks, anticipated issues and opportunities and developed plans to overcome obstacles.Stayed focused on driving business. Eliminated necessary distractions, provided strategic direction and analysis resulting in a 2% increase in sales over the prior year. Partnered with Senior Leadership to ensure company strategies were well defined, communicated and executed. Partnered with Directors of Planning and Allocation to establish and execute a strategy for better managing in-store inventory. Developed tools and processes to ensure assortments were store level appropriate based on customer attributes as well as store layout challenges and opportunities.

Led a team of 11 planning managers and specialists who developed and forecasted strategic financial plans to support and drive sales, margin and turn results.Partnered with General Merchandise Manager to drive Women’s Non-Athletic and Accessories sales of $530M as well as Famous Footwear Canada sales of $16.5M.Identified stores that were outperforming total company metrics based on customer segmentation and developed a plan to drive additional sales in these stores. Analyzed assortment mix and provided direction on additional inventory investments. All identified areas performed better than the total company.Improved team dynamics. Re-aligned planning managers to ensure workload was balanced and business needs were met. Improved communication by taking the lead on strategic conversations to provide reliability in shared messages and objectives. Created consistencies among the entire team to ensure information and tools were being shared and efficiencies improved. Utilized relationships with leadership and support teams to ensure business strategies were being supported.Successfully led the team through planning process changes as well as a systemic upgrade. Improved management of over and underperforming businesses as well as increased visibility to inventory opportunities. Developed new training guidelines and objectives for the entire planning team to ensure consistency and accuracy as we on boarded new managers and specialists.

Led a team of 9 associates who supported 1,100 retail locations. I ensured all retail operating strategies were clearly defined and communicated, all retail systems functioned to support the business, and all training and development programs supported key performance indicators. Improved the overall accuracy and consistency of all communications to the field creating a higher level of clarity as well as fewer retractions and increased operational efficiencies.Re-structured team to ensure business needs were being met.Enhanced functionality of communication tool with a focus on usability, organization and intuitiveness. Partnered with field leadership to develop and launch Famous Footwear’s new customer service program. Created training documents and videos to support the launch. Partnered with internal and external partners to launch “fulfill from store” program resulting in improved inventory management, speed to customer and reduced shipping costs. Implemented a new strategy to reduce supply costs by over $.5 million in under 1 year. Streamlined order approval process and improved oversight of high cost items. Coordinated the successful launch of two retail systems - Mobile POS and the Associate Workbench App. These tools enabled associates to better balance operational tasks with providing excellent customer service and driving sales.Managed the store budgeting process, including sales and payroll with a focus on maximizing sales, providing excellent customer service and meeting financial goals.Partnered with internal and external partners to successfully launch Famous Footwear Canada, the first international footprint for Famous Footwear with 14 retail stores and a website, FF.ca.

Led team of 5 merchandise planning managers and specialists responsible for developing and executing financial and merchandise plans. Partnered with General Merchandise Manager to drive Athletic footwear sales of $660M.Focused on providing strategic direction, communication, process improvement, and driving results.Led forecasting and strategic planning meetings to provided sales and margin direction to the team for pre-season targets as well as monthly forecasts. Developed reporting to provide visibility to key metrics to better understand receipt flow and inventory at the store level.Partnered with merchandise operations team to adjust planning timeframes to better align with key business peaks. Encouraged re-alignment of women’s business to more accurately plan, buy and allocate ensuring stores and therefore customer needs are more accurately met. Stayed focused on by store inventory of key brands through peak timeframes to ensure sales opportunities were maximized.Re-aligned team to ensure growth opportunities for top performers while ensuring development for the Athletic team, as well as the entire planning organization.