Planning & Allocation Analyst Intern
Burlington is a major off-price retailer selling items such as clothing, accessories, home items, beauty products, toys, and more. The company, with over 1100 stores, is based in Burlington, NJ, and holds a spot on the Fortune 500 list. I worked in the Planning & Allocations department of the business, which deals with how product gets distributed to the stores.
My internship in the Planning & Allocations department was a rotational program, mirroring the three main roles within the department. During the Allocation rotation, I allocated product to stores based on certain criteria, as well as sales and inventory history. Within the Location Planning portion, I analyzed the regional performance of certain product categories based on financial data. Finally, within the Chain Planning rotation, I looked at the performance of product categories on an entire chain level to project sales for future seasons.
For my main project, I worked alongside eight other interns within both the Buying and Planning departments to come up with a strategy for a certain product category for a future sales season. Using trend research, financial history analysis, and forecasting, we presented our strategic recommendations to executives on how the company should move forward with this product category.
Through this internship, I was able to gain many skills in sales forecasting, financial analysis, merchandising, and chain planning. I also leveraged software platforms such as Microsoft Excel, Power BI, and Oracle to learn what goes into the business of planning.