Merchandise Planner Career Guide,
Salary, Licence & Jobs 2026

Merchandise planners are counted by BLS under the broad Buyers and Purchasing Agents code (SOC 13-1020), where the OEWS May 2025 median is $77,710 a year, about $37.36 an hour, from $48,380 at the 10th percentile to $128,870 at the 90th. Assistant and associate planners sit in the lower half, while senior planners and planning managers at large retailers earn toward the top, often with performance bonuses.

Most planners start as assistant or associate planners after an analytical, business or merchandising background, maintaining open-to-buy, building reports and running allocation. Mastering open-to-buy budgeting, sales and inventory forecasting and markdown planning, then getting fluent in a retail-planning system, builds the skill set. From there you own a category's plans and advance to senior planner and planning-director roles.

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A merchandise planner decides how much a retailer buys and where it goes. They build sales, inventory and margin forecasts, manage open-to-buy budgets, plan markdowns, and allocate product across stores and channels so stock matches demand. Working closely with buyers, they balance in-stock levels and inventory turn against markdown risk, owning the numbers side of merchandising rather than product selection.

Both share the Buyers and Purchasing Agents code (SOC 13-1020), but they are partners with different focus. The buyer chooses what to buy — the assortment, vendors, cost and pricing — while the planner decides how much to buy and where to send it, owning open-to-buy, forecasts, allocation and inventory flow. Planners face inward to numbers and stock; buyers face outward to product and vendors.

Yes, modestly. The broad Buyers and Purchasing Agents code is projected to grow about 5.8% over 2024–2034, faster than average, with roughly 52,200 openings a year. Retailers' push toward data-driven planning to cut markdowns and stockouts and manage omnichannel allocation keeps demand for skilled planners steady, and investment in forecasting and allocation systems adds to the need for people who can run them.

For analytical people who like retail and forecasting, yes: merchandise planners earn a $77,710 median and can reach $128,870 in planning leadership, with 5.8% projected growth and no license required. The work carries real margin and inventory accountability and can be spreadsheet-heavy, but strong forecasting and allocation results open a clear path into senior planning and planning-director roles.