About Cecilia Goetz
My name is Cecilia Goetz. I grew up outside of Boston and currently live in the city while working in Framingham, Massachusetts, at TJX. I graduated from the University of Delaware (UD) in 2024 with an honors degree in Fashion Merchandising and minors in Management Information Systems and Business Administration. In my time at UD, I was a member of UDress Magazine and took part in a Fashion study abroad program in Paris as well as a food & wine Hospitality program in Australia/New Zealand.
Question 1: As a senior allocation analyst, what are your primary roles? What does a typical day or week look like for you? Which part of the job do you find most exciting? Were there any aspects of the position that surprised you after you started?
Cecilia: As a Senior Allocation Analyst in the footwear department for TJ Maxx, it is my job to come up with a weekly shipping strategy for what is being sent to our stores across the country so each one can get a cohesive, exciting, and unique mix of products. Throughout the week, I use several systems to manage this strategy and what we call “production” to ensure the goods needed to hit our weekly dollar goal are being processed and shipped to our stores.
One of my favorite parts of my job is being able to work so closely with the product. As someone who loves fashion and is a TJ Maxx customer myself, I love getting to talk about shoes all day. There is also something so special about deciding on a product mix one week and being able to actually see those shoes in stores a few weeks later. The role also allows me to utilize what I learned in my fashion classes while exercising the analytical skills I gained from my MIS minor. I like to think it is the perfect mix of my college education. TJX is also a company that really focuses on talent development. As a result, another key part of my job is training new analysts on my team and ensuring they are adjusting to the job and showing growth in their role. This is another very rewarding aspect of my position!
Question 2: I know that before your current role, you also worked on the buying side of the company. How does the role of an allocation analyst differ from buying, and in what ways are the two roles connected?
Cecilia:As an analyst, I am on the planning side of the company. On the other end of things, there are buyers who work with vendors to purchase all the goods that I allocate to stores. At TJX, most people start off on the planning side of the company and work their way up to the buying side. I interned in sleepwear buying and was able to work closely with the merchants in the department and observe their key tasks, such as vendor calls, quarterly strategy meetings, creation of purchase orders, etc.
While two very different roles, buying and planning are extremely connected. In my current role, I work closely with the buyers each week to ensure that we are achieving their vision of what the floor looks like with the many styles of shoes they purchase. They also let us know of any changes that need to be made, like the retail of each product, the month it is living in, or a change in the category. We work together on strategy meetings for each quarter, as well as our monthly reviews of what products we have on order, meaning the goods that have been purchased from the vendors and are on their way to our distribution centers.
Question 3: Can you walk our students through the key steps involved in developing an allocation/merchandise plan? Any key indicators that are particularly important to your decision-making?
Cecilia:I use a number of factors to come up with my allocation plan, like our ship goal for the week, the shoes we have available, the performance of those shoes in the past, the current season, and market trends. We essentially have plans for each class of shoe (e.g., heels, flats, sandals, sneakers, etc.) with projections of sales, inventory, sales-to-stock ratio (which we call “turn”), and several other key data points. I use our systems to look through what we currently have coming through our distribution centers across the country and decide how much I want to ship each type of shoe to fulfill these plans, while also deciding what specific shoes I want to ship within each class.
Every Monday, I receive several reports with data regarding my department’s performance in the previous week. I can look at things at a high level, like how a whole department or class did, while also being able to look at more specific information, like the selling of a certain style or zone within the country. For me, the most important indicators of whether a product, class, or department is working are the sales-to-stock ratio and sales. The sales-to-stock ratio essentially tells us how quickly we are turning over inventory (hence the nickname “turn”) by representing how much is being sold relative to how much of the product we have on the sales floor. If a style is selling very large volumes while turning quickly, we call it a “best-selling” style and prioritize shipping more of it the following week.
Throughout the week, it is also my job to manage production to ensure we reach our dollar goal and consistently communicate with our warehouses as issues arise. Our 1,300 stores are also split into 6 different zones based on location, climate, and demographics. This allows me to incorporate some lower-level analysis into my weekly strategies, like focusing certain products on certain zones, or bypassing a zone completely for one type of shoe or even a specific style. I can use different systems to track how much we have shipped week to date (WTD) of each class and how much is going to each zone.
Question 4: TJX is known as an off-price retailer. What unique merchandising issues or considerations are especially important for the company?
Cecilia:As an off-price retailer, a few of our main considerations are value, exciting mixes, and recognizable brands. We aim to offer our customers great deals on high-quality goods. They know that when they come into a TJ Maxx, Marshalls, or Home Goods, they are going to find amazing prices on brands they recognize that most other retailers cannot offer. A very important aspect of our business model is offering our customers a “treasure-hunt” shopping experience. We aim to make every store different with a unique collection of products so that no two stores look alike. As a result, shoppers feel a sense of urgency and that they have to buy something because they don’t know when they’ll see it next. This is part of the importance of the allocation analyst role. We help to make sure goods are allocated in a way that creates variety and excitement.
Question 5: From your perspective, what are the most important industry trends that students interested in merchandising and planning should be watching closely?
Cecilia:Arguably, the biggest topic of conversation in the retail industry right now is the newly imposed tariffs. Because so many vendors rely on manufacturers overseas to produce their goods, they are finding themselves in an especially tough position as they are forced to reassess manufacturers and make crucial decisions regarding who will have to take on the added costs. An understanding of tariffs and their implications for retailers has never been so important!
Another key trend in the industry is social media. As members of Gen-Z, our understanding of and involvement with platforms like Instagram and TikTok are so useful and relevant. At TJX, the buyers love to hear from us about the key trends we see and often take this information into account when buying products. Oftentimes, we can introduce them to a trend they never would’ve known about, especially if they aren’t consistent users of popular apps for our generation. There have also been several viral trends and videos involving our stores on social media. Seeing these can give us a better understanding of the customer mindset and what they are and aren’t excited about in our stores.
Question 6: What does a typical fashion merchandising job interview look like? What kinds of questions are commonly asked? And could you share any advice to help our students prepare and stand out?
Cecilia:My interview process involved a few different stages. The first of which was a virtual recording in which I had to talk about myself and answer some questions related to simple retail math. The second phase was a group interview. We spent the first part of the interview working independently in a simulation of the role, where we got to decide what we would and wouldn’t ship based on data and information given to us about different products. The group then came together to discuss our decisions and come to a consensus after considering each other’s thoughts and opinions. The final round involved short interviews with members of the recruitment team. Here, I got the opportunity to talk one-on-one with different people from the company and share my reasoning for applying, qualifications, and interests.
My biggest piece of advice for standing out, specifically in group interviews, is to share your honest opinion, even if it differs from your peers. I remember in my group interview, when we all came back to discuss, several people in my group started agreeing on things that were completely different from what I wrote down during the independent time. I started to panic, but then I decided to speak to my original plan while offering in-depth reasoning for my decisions. Rather than being judged, it created an open dialogue in which many different ideas were thrown around. One of the main parts of my current job is what we call “working in the gray.” There is no one right answer because there is no way to predict exactly what is going to happen each week in stores. As long as you are able to back up your decisions and explain your thought process, you will never get in trouble for having a differing opinion. In fact, people in both buying and planning LOVE to hear a range of ideas and thoughts because it offers fresh perspectives and gives some insight into what the customers could be thinking.
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