The Business Analyst owns the financial and inventory intelligence layer of the business, translating strategy into a clear, executable plan and ensuring performance tracks to expectations.
This role sits at the intersection of Financial, Presence, and Product, partnering closely with the Brand Growth Strategist (BGS) to define what success looks like, build the roadmap to achieve it, and continuously measure progress against it.
At its core, the Business Analyst answers three questions:
- What should happen? (Forecasting and planning)
- What is happening? (Performance tracking and analysis)
- What needs to change? (Insights and recommendations)
Core Responsibilities
1. Business Planning & Forecasting
- Co-own development of the Revenue Scenario Model (RSM) with the BGS
- Forecast top-line revenue, margin, and unit volume by SKU, month, and year (and sometimes weekly as needed)
- Translate financial targets into a detailed inventory plan
- Ensure alignment between growth strategy and operational feasibility
2. Inventory Strategy & Management
- Own forward-looking inventory planning across fulfillment channels (FBA, WFS, FBM, MCF and AWD)
- Develop and manage integrated inventory strategies, including how inventory flows through AWD into FBA to support availability and cost efficiency
- Make recommendations on when and how to leverage AWD vs. direct FBA shipments to optimize fees, flow, and inventory health
- Identify risks and opportunities related to:
- Stockouts
- Excess inventory
- Turn rates and cash flow impact
- Storage and fulfillment costs
- Align inventory decisions to revenue and margin goals, not just in-stock rates
- Partner with the team to ensure inventory positioning supports operational scalability and profitability, not just short-term availability
3. Performance Tracking & Pacing
- Track actuals vs. plan across:
- Revenue
- Margin
- Units
- Inventory position
- Monitor monthly pacing at SKU-level against forecast and inventory plan
- Identify early signals when the business is off track from its targets
- Provide clear visibility to the Growth Team on where inventory performance stands and what it means
4. Assortment Strategy with Product & Rivals Insights
- Conduct ongoing assortment analysis to optimize SKU mix, balancing revenue potential, profitability, operational efficiency, and strategic positioning
- Lead keep / kill / expand recommendations based on:
- Performance
- Profitability
- Strategic fit
- Competitive positioning
- Market demand trends
- Partner with the BGS to define the brand’s future assortment strategy, ensuring product decisions align with overall growth goals and category opportunities
- Integrate insights from the Product and Rivals avenues to help guide assortment planning, including:
- Competitive product landscape analysis
- Pricing and promotional positioning
- Category trends and emerging demand shifts
- Competitor assortment expansion or contraction
- White space and opportunity gap identification
- Evaluate how products are competitively “slotted” within the marketplace by understanding:
- Current market leaders
- Feature and pricing expectations
- Review and rating benchmarks
- Assortment depth and breadth within the category
- Help forecast the potential demand and financial impact of:
- New product launches
- Assortment expansions
- Product discontinuations
- Bundling or pack-size strategies
- Provide data-backed recommendations on where additional product slots or assortment expansion opportunities should exist within the catalog based on marketplace demand and competitive trends
5. Purchase Planning
- Advise on purchase order quantities and timing
- Ensure purchasing decisions align with:
- Forecasted demand
- Margin targets
- Cash flow considerations
6. Insights & Strategic Recommendations
- Move beyond reporting to provide clear, actionable insights
- Identify where are we over/underperforming?
- Proactively surface risks, opportunities, and trade-offs to the Growth Team
What Good Looks Like
- The business has a clear, credible plan (RSM) that ties strategy to numbers
- Inventory is intentionally managed, not reactive
- The team always knows where they stand vs. goal and why
- Decisions are made with financial clarity and trade-offs understood
- The Business Analyst is a strategic partner to the BGS