Base Location: Bangalore
Minimum Qualification: Master's from NIFT or related institutes
Preferred Experience: 7 to 10 years
Preferred Skills: Relevant experience in buying and merchandising within Retail, Textile, or Apparel industries
Key Result Areas
- Develop and drive accurate financial, sales, and line plans for designated product categories, ensuring alignment with the overall Business Unit product and marketing strategy.
- Formulate annual business plans and OTB (Open to Buy) plans, collaborating on monthly, quarterly, and annual sales, inventory, and line plan targets.
- Maintain the right balance of price points, casual vs non-casual mix, category mix, and fashion quotient to meet business objectives.
Drive Sustainable Profitable Growth in Retail
- Lead the buying and allocation teams across all stores to manage pre-season planning, in-season stock management, gross profit optimization, SKU allocation, and replenishment.
Financial Goals (Non-Negotiable)
- Achieve sales targets on yearly, quarterly, and L2L (like-to-like) basis.
- Maintain Gross Margin and EBIDTA targets as a percentage of sales.
- Optimize working capital by delivering ideal Days on Cash (DOC).
Operations (Non-Negotiable)
- Improve buying processes to increase throughput from stores.
- Drive higher sell-through rates through timely and accurate buying, allocation, and discount management.
- Increase Sell Through Per Week (STPW) and Sales Per Square Foot (SSPD) to boost store profitability and assess store layout effectiveness.
- Achieve targeted inventory turns to ensure efficient cash rotation and maintain targeted stock days.
- Review stock and sales plans with team members to optimize performance.
- Develop and execute channel-specific plans to meet sales, gross margin, and inventory goals.
- Manage risk via promotional and markdown strategies to meet net margin targets.
- Implement action plans to reduce high stock levels in showrooms.
- Develop efficient pullback and replenishment systems.
Freshness of Stock & Pullback Process
- Ensure seamless running of Automatic Markdowns (AMM) and timely addition of correct stock into discount mix.
- Maintain a high Freshness Index current season stock as a percentage of total non-core stock at stores.
- Implement fast, controlled pullback processes to liquidate unproductive merchandise via value channels.
Efficient Core Management
- Maintain a sharp core range for best-in-class core availability and efficient DOC.
- Clear non-moving stock by timely discounting.
Ways of Working
- Document and streamline Brick & Mortar processes with review mechanisms.
- Maintain a season-wise library of orders with images.
- Drive adoption and smooth operation of automation tools such as Symphony and Store Config.
People & Development
- Drive continuous development of self and team through training initiatives.
- Train frontline staff on products, features, and unique selling propositions.
Trend Analysis & Forecasting
- Research and forecast future trends using online and offline sources.
- Communicate trends effectively to the design teams to influence collections.
Desired Skills and Experience:
Buying, Merchandising
