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David SandersDS

David Sanders

Retail Merchandise Planning Consultant

€752/day
Nottingham, GB
15+ years

Average response time: 1 hour

About David

I spent 25 years in retail merchandise planning - long enough to know and understand what a good job looks like, how to keep the plates spinning, what can go wrong, why it matters and how to fix it.

Most of that time was at Asda George Clothing, where I built the Central Merchandise Planning function after 10 years as a merchandiser. I designed and created the business reporting, built the tools and solutions, and became a trusted sounding board for the business — helping to solve problems, challenge thinking, and guide decisions with clear, practical insight. I also led the merchandise planning side of two major ERP implementations. It’s a world I know and love.

I went freelance in 2025 and now work with retailers and AI companies, applying that experience in a practical, hands-on way — whether that’s planning and forecasting, analytics and reporting, or supporting a system implementation. I’m currently working as a functional consultant on an MFP & WSSI implementation and separately supporting an AI company with retail analytics and reporting.

If any of that sounds useful, I’d love to hear from you.

Typically I get pulled in to help with:

• Merchandise planning & forecasting
• MFP, WSSI & Assortment Planning implementation
• Analytics, reporting & insight
• Business Analyst - acting as the bridge between business teams and tech delivery
• Buying & Merchandising tools & solutions
• ERP programmes & implementations
• Moving from Excel to scalable planning systems
• Improving & optimising Excel reporting & tools
  • English

    Native or bilingual

Can work on-site
Nottingham (up to 50km)

Experience

  • David Sanders Consulting Ltd
    Freelance Retail Consultant
    RETAIL (LARGE RETAILERS)
    August 2025 - Today (10 months)
    David Sanders Consulting Ltd has delivered freelance consultancy engagements across retail merchandise planning, system implementation, strategic transformation and AI product development since August 2025
    Microsoft Excel ERP AI Automation Data analysis Reporting
  • The Works
    MFP & WSSI Implementation Functional Consultant
    February 2026 - Today (4 months)
    • • Contracted as lead consultant on a 15-week Board MFP and WSSI implementation at The Works, working alongside BDG as the technology implementation partner
    • • Acting as the bridge between business and BDG: translating commercial planning requirements into system design, defining planning levels and hierarchy, and ensuring the solution reflects real-world trading and buying needs
    • • Providing merchandise planning expertise to ensure the implementation partner (BDG) delivers MFP and WSSI solutions that are fit for purpose and aligned to The Works' future business needs — advising on measures, metrics and their calculations, shaping functionality requirements, building reports, leading discovery workshops, and developing UAT test scripts and RACI frameworks to support sign-off across all planning scenarios
    • • Engaged at senior level across Merchandising, Commercial Finance and IT Transformation, building stakeholder consensus and driving project momentum throughout the programme
  • Source
    AI Retail Knowledge Consultant
    October 2025 - Today (8 months)
    • • Partnering with Source, an AI start-up, to embed retail merchandising logic, analytics and reporting knowledge into their agentic AI product
    • • Translating complex retail planning concepts — including WSSI, OTB, range planning, intake margin and performance analysis — into structured, accurate knowledge the AI can apply in a real retail context

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Education

  • BA
    Ruskin University
    1996
    BA Business Economics 2.1

Skill set

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