Category Manager

Name of the Company: KISAH Apparels Pvt Ltd

Job Description: Category Manager

Function: Business / Merchandising

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 ecommerce, 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:

o Avoid stock-outs on winners

o Control excess inventory on slow movers

• Continuously improve forecast accuracy through learning loops

3. Pricing, Discounting & Margin Strategy

• Define pricing architecture by:

o Channel

o Region

o 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:

o Number of styles

o Depth per style

o 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:

o Who they are

o Why they buy from Kisah

o Price sensitivity

o Regional preferences

o 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:

o Key festivals

o Micro-events (Eid, Rakhi, Onam, wedding season, etc.)

o Clearance & liquidation events

• Work with growth, marketing, and merchandising teams to ensure:

o Right assortment

o Right pricing

o Right inventory availability

7. Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with:

o BI – for data enablement and forecasting

o Design – for product inputs and range correction

o Supply Chain – for production planning and replenishment

o 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