Manager Vendor Sourcing Onboarding

We are looking for a hands-on sourcing professional to build and grow our vendor base. You will identify, evaluate, negotiate with and onboard sellers and suppliers across categories, with a strong focus on fashion and lifestyle. You will own the journey from first contact to a vendor's first live orders, and help scale supply for domestic and cross-border marketplaces.

• Identify and acquire new vendors and sellers across assigned categories, with a focus on fashion, apparel and lifestyle.
• Map manufacturing and trading hubs (e.g., Tirupur, Surat, Jaipur, Kolkata) and build geo-specific sourcing plans for under-penetrated regions.
• Run competitor benchmarking to find selection gaps and target high-value suppliers.
• Build duplicate sourcing for key SKUs to reduce pricing and availability risk.
• Drive acquisition through inbound, outbound, field visits, trade fairs and CRM campaigns.

• Own end-to-end onboarding: documentation, KYC, GST and compliance checks, catalog setup and go-live.
• Coordinate catalog quality, pricing and listing with category, catalog and QC teams.
• Support vendors through their first orders and fix early blockers on fulfilment, packaging and returns.
• Track onboarding turnaround time and cut drop-offs in the funnel.

• Negotiate commercial terms: pricing, margins, MOQs, payment terms and lead times.
• Plan inventory and selection with vendors based on demand signals and category goals.
• Run engagement and retention programs to grow vendor contribution and stickiness.

• Help prepare vendors for cross-border selling, including export documentation and shipment readiness.
• Work with logistics partners on forward deployment of inventory (e.g., sea and air freight to the Middle East).

• Maintain sourcing and onboarding dashboards; report weekly on pipeline, conversions and GMV.
• Work with category, marketing, operations, finance and product teams to execute launches.
• Document sourcing playbooks and best practices for the wider team.

• 46 years in vendor sourcing, seller acquisition, category or buying roles at an e-commerce marketplace, retailer or D2C brand.
• Proven record of sourcing and onboarding vendors at scale, with measurable impact on selection, orders or GMV.
• Strong negotiation skills and working knowledge of vendor commercials (margins, MOQs, payment terms).
• Understanding of e-commerce models (B2C, B2B, B2R) and the seller lifecycle.
• Good command of Excel or Google Sheets; comfort with funnel metrics and dashboards.
• Willingness to travel to sourcing hubs and meet vendors on the ground.
• MBA or equivalent degree in business, marketing or supply chain preferred.

• Category knowledge in fashion, apparel, ethnic wear, handcrafts and etc,.
• Exposure to cross-border commerce, export documentation or Middle East/APAC markets.
• Experience launching new regions or categories from scratch.
• Experience with private label or regional and artisanal product sourcing.
• Ability to speak one or more regional languages (e.g., Hindi, Kannada, Tamil) to engage vendors.

• Vendor sourcing
• Seller onboarding
• Negotiation
• Category management
• Inventory planning
• Stakeholder management
• Data-driven decision making
• Process improvement