Manager - Buying & Merchandising - Kids Wear

Location: Bengaluru

Role Summary

To drive the growth, profitability, and market relevance of the Kid’s Wear category by delivering the right assortment at the right time and price. The role is responsible for seasonal buying, assortment planning, vendor management, and in-season trade management, ensuring strong sell-through, healthy inventory turns, and customer satisfaction across stores and channels.

Key Responsibilities

Category & Business Ownership

- Support delivery of category KPIs – sales, margin, sell-through, stock turns, and GMROI.
- Execute seasonal category plans aligned to business targets.
- Monitor weekly trade performance and initiate corrective actions (rebuys, markdowns, stock transfers).
- Ensure freshness and relevance of range across core, fashion, and seasonal segments.

Product Planning & Buying

- Assist in developing seasonal assortment architecture across assigned divisional groups
- Plan option counts, depth, and size ratios in alignment with store clusters and demand patterns.
- Support timely execution of the buying calendar and seasonal launches.
- Translate design concepts into commercially viable buy plans.
- Identify new product opportunities based on customer insights and market trends.

Market & Consumer Focus

- Understand customer preferences across fits, fabrics, price sensitivity, and regional demand.
- Conduct competitor benchmarking on assortment, pricing, and trends.
- Participate in store and market visits to gather real-time insights.
- Analyze post-launch performance and recommend assortment or pricing adjustments.

Vendor & Sourcing Management

- Build and maintain strong vendor relationships to ensure quality, cost, and on-time delivery.
- Support vendor negotiations, cost optimization, and margin improvement initiatives.
- Monitor vendor performance on lead times, compliance, and product quality.
- Assist in order placement, sample approvals, and production tracking.
- Drive consolidation and efficiency in sourcing to improve speed to market.

Financial Planning

- Support effective utilization of Open-to-Buy (OTB) budgets aligned to category goals.
- Assist in pricing strategy through costing and margin analysis.
- Track inventory productivity and manage markdowns to protect margins.
- Contribute to forecasting and demand planning exercises.

Product Presentation

- Collaborate with VM and Retail teams to ensure strong on-floor execution and visual storytelling.
- Support new launches, promotions, and seasonal campaigns.
- Assist in planogram development and space allocation.
- Ensure consistent product presentation standards across stores.

People & Cross-Functional Collaboration

- Guide and support junior team members on category execution and processes.
- Work closely with Design, Planning, Retail, Marketing, and Supply Chain for seamless execution.
- Share category insights and best practices to improve team effectiveness.