Key Responsibilities
1. Category Buying
- Develop the seasonal and annual buying strategy for Bags & Accessories in line with brand positioning and business objectives.
- Analyse market trends, fashion directions, customer preferences and competitor offerings to identify new product opportunities.
- Build and maintain the category assortment across EBO, SIS and other relevant channels.
- Finalise product assortment based on category performance, price architecture, customer profile and store/channel requirements.
- Work with Design/Sourcing teams to develop commercially viable products and collections.
- Conduct regular competitor and market analysis on product, price, assortment, promotions and newness.
- Ensure the right balance of core, fashion, seasonal and trend-led products.
2. Merchandise Planning
- Prepare seasonal, monthly and category-level sales and inventory plans.
- Develop OTB (Open-to-Buy) plans based on sales targets, stock requirements and inventory budgets.
- Plan category-wise option count, depth, size/colour mix and store/channel allocation.
- Set sales, margin, stock and sell-through targets for the category.
- Monitor actual performance against plan and identify gaps and corrective actions.
- Plan stock requirements considering seasonality, launches, promotions and business growth.
3. Inventory & Stock Management
- Maintain optimum inventory levels and ensure healthy stock cover and stock productivity.
- Monitor sell-through, stock turn, ageing, WOS/stock cover and OOS on a regular basis.
- Identify slow-moving and non-performing products and recommend appropriate actions.
- Ensure timely replenishment of fast-moving/core products.
- Plan markdowns, promotions and liquidation strategies in coordination with the relevant teams.
- Minimise excess, aged and obsolete inventory while maintaining adequate availability.
4. Business & Commercial Management
- Own category performance against Sales, Gross Margin, Sell-Through, Stock Turn and Inventory targets.
- Analyse category profitability and identify opportunities to improve margins.
- Monitor full-price sell-through vs. discounted sales.
- Evaluate product performance and make data-driven decisions on repeat, drop, increase or reduce quantities.
- Ensure buying decisions are aligned with the company's price architecture and margin strategy.
- Prepare regular business reviews and present category insights to management.
5. Store & Channel Planning
- Develop differentiated assortments based on store cluster, geography, customer profile and channel potential.
- Plan initial allocation and replenishment requirements.
- Analyse store-level performance to identify assortment gaps and opportunities.
- Partner with Sales and Operations teams to improve availability and category productivity.
- Ensure effective launch planning for new collections and products.
6. Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with Design, Sourcing, Production, Sales, Marketing, VM, Finance and Operations.
- Coordinate with Sourcing on product costing, lead times, MOQ and delivery schedules.
- Collaborate with VM to ensure product presentation supports the category strategy.
- Work with Marketing on campaign and promotional requirements.
- Partner with Finance to ensure buying remains within approved budgets and financial parameters.
Candidate Profile
- Experience: 5–10 years in Buying, Merchandise Planning or Category Management, preferably within bags or accessories retail.
- Strong understanding of fashion retail buying and merchandise planning.
- Good knowledge of category management, assortment planning, OTB and inventory planning.
- Strong analytical and commercial orientation.
- Good understanding of sales, margin, sell-through, stock turn, ageing and markdowns.
- Strong negotiation and vendor/sourcing coordination skills.
- Proficiency in MS Excel and merchandise planning/ERP systems.
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to balance fashion sensitivity with commercial and data-driven decision-making.
