Retail planning & AI advisor · Dallas
I'm Zach Munoz. I help retailers, brands and their investors decide what to buy, where it goes and when to mark it down, and put AI to work where it pays. 25+ years in retail planning across luxury, mid-tier and discount, most recently leading Neiman Marcus' $4B planning function.
Retail Operator Experience
How I help
For retailers, brands and the investors who back them. Short diagnostics, hands-on projects or interim leadership, sized to the problem.
A clear read on where your inventory is working and where it's quietly costing you, then the fixes that move margin.
$250M+in inventory reduction from a rolling 18-month forecast
Where AI can help your planning, merchandising and operations teams today, what has to be true first and how to measure it so the results hold up.
73 bpsfewer lost sales than a Tier-1 department store's own allocation, in an AI pilot I led across 10 departments
Business-side leadership for planning system selection, migration and adoption, so the software matches how your teams make decisions.
~95%adoption of ML size optimization, worth an estimated $10M+ in profit
Planning org design and coaching for growing teams, and an operator's view for investors and expert networks sizing up a retailer.
<5%of my planners left for other companies, and dozens were promoted to buyer
The record
Plus $50M+ in annual savings from Kohl's eSign digital signing, and sustainable and ethical product revenue grown from about $150M to $500M, hitting a public ESG goal a year early. Figures marked est. are modeled estimates.
Selected work
How we'd work together
Thirty minutes on what's keeping you up at night. No pitch deck.
I dig into your plans, data and process and come back with the few moves that matter most.
A scoped plan with the number we're trying to move and how we'll know it moved.
Hands-on work alongside your team, so the results stay after I leave.
About
I've spent my career deciding how much to buy, where it goes and when it goes on sale.
At Neiman Marcus I rose from planning three categories to leading the $4B omnichannel planning function, with a team of 85+. I built a rolling 18-month forecast that took $250M+ out of inventory, led the business side of a full planning-system migration to 100% adoption, and developed dozens of planners into buyers.
A lot of my best work ended an argument. When buyers and planners fight over the "right" inventory level, or two chains fight over shared stock, I build an objective rule both sides can accept, so the teams can get back to the business.
Before Neiman Marcus I led merchandise solutions at Kohl's, where I ran pricing test-and-learn and modernized data, BI, RFID and PLM. Earlier, I held planning and finance roles at Robinsons-May and Meier & Frank, where I was named Finance/IT Executive of the Year.
Most recently I was VP of Industry Strategy at invent.ai, a retail AI company, working with fashion and apparel retailers on AI forecasting, allocation and pricing. I built the framework it used to prove customer value, with frozen baselines and counterfactual attribution, and led an AI allocation pilot that cut lost sales 73 bps against a Tier-1 department store's own allocation. I know what these tools can do, and what has to be true before they do it.
Speaking & workshops
Most bad AI output is a context problem. How teams get better results by giving AI what they'd give a new hire.
How to test AI the way planners test markdowns: small, measured and graded, so teams keep what works.
What store clustering hides, and how planners can plan each store as its own business.
Work with me
Tell me a little about what you're working on. I reply personally within one business day.
Consulting projects, advisory, workshops, speaking and expert calls. Based in Dallas, working with clients nationwide.
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