Job Title: Assistant Merchandiser Planner
Location: Manchester
Department: Merchandising
Reporting to: Depending on department
Job Type: Full-time
About SUMWON STUDIOS
SUMWON STUDIOS is a fast-growing collective of direct-to-consumer fashion brands, including MISSGUIDED, SUMWON, BALR, Baby Phat, AiiRZ and KiZN. Our mission is to create bold, culturally relevant fashion brands that connect with a diverse global audience.
We bring together a world-class team of designers, trend forecasters and digital innovators who work collaboratively to turn creative ideas into commercially successful products. Through our deep understanding of consumer behaviour, market trends and data-led insights, we craft brands that not only inspire but also perform.
Our exclusive partnership with one of the largest fashion retailers in the world enables us to reach over 150 million customers globally, giving our brands an unparalleled platform for growth.
As we continue to scale, we are building a team of forward thinkers who thrive in a fast-paced, digital-first environment. The Assistant Merchandiser plays a key role in this mission, supporting our merchandising strategy, driving performance, and ensuring our products and collections reach customers in the most compelling way possible.
We celebrate individuality, creativity and collaboration, and we are looking for people ready to challenge convention and make their mark in the world of global fashion.
The Role
As an Assistant Merchandise Planner at SUMWON STUDIOS, you will be the operational backbone of our merchandise planning function, ensuring products launch on time with exceptional quality while also supporting planning through insightful analysis. You'll coordinate daily product launches across multiple brands, manage critical path workflows, create curated product selections for landing pages, and deliver performance deep-dives that inform buying and merchandising strategy.
This role sits in between operations, analysis, and merchandising curation - perfect for someone who thrives on making things happen while understanding the "why" behind the data.
Key Responsibilities
Product Launch Management & Quality Control
- Manage daily product launch scheduling for assigned brands
- Conduct pre-launch quality control checks to ensure product readiness (imagery, content, pricing)
- Coordinate with design and buying teams to resolve any pre-launch issues or discrepancies
- Maintain launch calendars and communicate status updates to cross-functional teams
Critical Path & Sample Management
- Manage critical path tracking for products in development & follow up on product status updates with relevant teams and suppliers
- Coordinate sample reorders when needed and track sample delivery status
- Collate and share AWB lists for re-sampled products with the studio team
- Ensure supplier and internal team compliance with timelines
Analysis & Performance Deep-Dives
- Create performance reports for monthly & quarterly strategy meetings
- Leverage internal brand performance data and competitive marketplace intelligence to identify which product attributes drive sales
- Translate data into actionable insights that inform design & buying decisions
Content Quality Management
- Identify products with poor-quality retouching or recolours that require correction
- Request internal retouching improvements and follow through to completion
- Maintain quality standards across all product imagery and content
Merchandising Curation & Line List Creation
- Build line lists for onsite landing pages across brands (seasonal collections, trend edits, bestsellers)
- Create ad hoc line lists for the buying team to support assortment planning decisions
What you’ll bring
- 1-2 years of experience in merchandising, buying, e-commerce or product operations; OR fresh graduate with relevant fashion/retail internship experience
- Experience in fashion retail, e-commerce, or marketplace environments is highly valued
- Understanding of the fashion product lifecycle from design through launch
- Strong Excel/Google Sheets skills for data analysis and reporting
- Ability to analyse product performance data and identify meaningful patterns
- Comfort working with numbers and translating data into insights
- Exceptional organisational skills and ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously
- Strong attention to detail, especially for quality control processes
- Proactive problem-solver who can identify issues and coordinate solutions
- Process-oriented mindset with focus on efficiency and continuous improvement
- Commercial awareness and understanding of what drives fashion product performance
- Eye for product curation and ability to build compelling assortments
- Appreciation for fashion trends and how they influence consumer behaviour
- Understanding of how product attributes (silhouette, colour, print, fit) impact sales
What's on offer?
- 25 working days of annual leave plus bank holidays
- Health Scheme
- 30% employee discount on all Sumwon Studios brands (Sumwon, Missguided, Aiirz)
- Company social events
- Creative work environment
- Competitive salary
- Hybrid working to support work-life balance
- Enhanced paternity and maternity leave
- Pension contributions employee 5% employer 3%
Work Environment
- Opportunity to be part of a dynamic, innovative and fun organisation.
- Collaborative and supportive work culture with opportunities for professional growth and development.
- An engaging and supportive work environment
- A very modern office to work in
Sumwon Studios is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to supporting diversity and inclusion within our work environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of emp