Name of the Company: KISAH Apparels Pvt Ltd
Job Description: Category Manager
Reporting To: Co-founder / CBO
Role Level: Manager / Senior Manager (based on experience)
About Us:
Kisah is a fast-growing men's fashion brand redefining occasion-wear for Next-Gen and Gen Z consumers. Born digital, Kisah is now scaling as an omnichannel brand with presence across e-commerce, D2C, offline retail, both in India and globally. Our edge lies in bold, unique, and fashion-forward designs that reflect the evolving tastes of young consumers—while staying simple, comfortable, and affordable.
Role Purpose
The Category Manager owns end-to-end growth of assigned category/categories at Kisah.
This role is responsible for demand forecasting, pricing, new launches, and seasonal planning, backed by a deep understanding of customers, regions, and buying behaviour.
The Category Manager is the business owner of the category P&L, working closely with BI, supply planning, design, marketing, and operations to drive sustainable, profitable growth.
Key Responsibilities
1. Category Growth & P&L Ownership
- Own GMV, net revenue, margins, sell-through, and inventory turns for the category
- Drive profitable growth across D2C, marketplaces, retail, and quick commerce
- Identify growth levers by channel, region, price band, and product type
2. Demand Forecasting & Supply Alignment
- Own SKU-level and style-level demand forecasts
- Work with BI to translate historical sales, seasonality, and trends into forecasts
- Partner with supply planning to:
- Avoid stock-outs on winners
- Control excess inventory on slow movers
- Continuously improve forecast accuracy through learning loops
3. Pricing, Discounting & Margin Strategy
- Define pricing architecture by:
- Channel
- Region
- Occasion & season
- Plan discounting strategy across full price, events, clearance, and end-of-season
- Balance growth vs margin while maintaining brand positioning
4. New Launch & Range Planning
- Plan season-wise launch calendars in collaboration with design and supply
- Define:
- Number of styles
- Depth per style
- Size and color mix
- Track new launch performance and activate early reorders or corrections
5. Customer & Market Understanding (Core Differentiator)
- Develop a deep understanding of the category customer:
- Who they are
- Why they buy from Kisah
- Price sensitivity
- Regional preferences
- Occasion-led demand
- Analyze returns, cancellations, and customer feedback to identify product gaps
- Translate customer insights into actionable product and pricing decisions
6. Seasonal & Campaign Planning
- Own category-level planning for:
- Key festivals
- Micro-events (Eid, Rakhi, Onam, wedding season, etc.)
- Clearance & liquidation events
- Work with growth, marketing, and merchandising teams to ensure:
- Right assortment
- Right pricing
- Right inventory availability
7. Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with:
- BI – for data enablement and forecasting
- Design – for product inputs and range correction
- Supply Chain – for production planning and replenishment
- Growth & Merchandising – for visibility and conversion
- Act as the single point of accountability for category performance
Key Metrics (What Success Looks Like)
- Category GMV growth
- Sell-through %
- Inventory turns & aging
- Forecast accuracy (MAPE)
- Gross margin %
- Return & cancellation rates
- New launch success rate
Skills & Competencies
Must-Have
- Extremely analytical & data-driven
- Strong business and logical thinking
- Comfortable working with large datasets and dashboards
- Excellent Excel / Google Sheets skills
- Ability to connect numbers with customer behaviour
Good-to-Have
- Experience in fashion / lifestyle / ecommerce categories
- Understanding of demand planning & inventory economics
- Exposure to BI tools (Power BI / Tableau / Looker)
Experience & Background
- 3–6 years experience in category management, merchandising, or business roles
- Experience in ecommerce, D2C, marketplaces, or retail strongly preferred
- Prior experience owning category-level decisions is a big plus
What This Role Is NOT
- Not a reporting or dashboard role
- Not a design-only or buying-only role
- This is a business ownership role powered by data
Why Join Kisah
- Opportunity to build categories at scale, not just manage them
- High ownership, high impact role with direct influence on revenue
- Strong BI backbone enabling smart decision-making
- Fast-growing brand with ambition to scale 5–6x over the next few years
