Key Responsibilities:
1. Merchandising Strategy & Commercial Planning
- Develop and execute the overall merchandising strategy in line with business growth and profitability objectives.
- Lead annual and long-term category plans covering sales, margin, assortment, pricing and inventory objectives.
- Identify new category opportunities and areas for portfolio expansion based on consumer trends and market demand.
- Establish category priorities and ensure merchandising strategies are consistently executed across the retail network.
- Drive continuous improvement in merchandising processes, commercial frameworks and ways of working.
2. Category & Assortment Management
- Oversee category management and assortment planning across multiple product categories.
- Develop optimal product ranges based on customer demand, store formats, space availability, sales productivity and profitability.
- Review category performance and identify opportunities to introduce, expand, rationalise or discontinue products.
- Ensure product assortment remains competitive, relevant and aligned with evolving consumer needs.
- Develop category and product lifecycle strategies to maximise sales and profitability.
3. Buying, Pricing & Margin Management
- Lead commercial negotiations with suppliers covering cost prices, rebates, promotions, payment terms and other commercial arrangements.
- Develop competitive pricing strategies while maintaining targeted gross margins.
- Monitor competitor pricing and market trends to ensure appropriate price positioning.
- Drive margin improvement through product sourcing, cost negotiation, assortment optimisation and pricing strategies.
- Ensure promotional and markdown strategies support both sales growth and profitability.
4. Supplier & Vendor Management
- Build and maintain strong strategic relationships with key suppliers, manufacturers and business partners.
- Develop supplier strategies to improve cost competitiveness, product quality, availability and innovation.
- Negotiate commercial agreements and resolve major supplier-related issues where required.
- Identify new local and international sourcing opportunities to strengthen product competitiveness.
- Establish supplier performance measures and ensure vendors consistently meet agreed commercial and service expectations.
5. Inventory & Product Availability
- Partner closely with Supply Chain and Operations teams to optimise inventory availability and stock productivity.
- Monitor sell-through, stock cover, inventory ageing, slow-moving products and stock-outs.
- Balance product availability with working capital and inventory investment requirements.
- Drive initiatives to reduce excess and obsolete inventory while maintaining appropriate availability levels.
- Ensure merchandising decisions are supported by accurate demand and sales data.
6. Market & Consumer Insights
- Monitor consumer behaviour, retail trends, competitor activities and emerging product categories.
- Analyse market and customer insights to identify opportunities for assortment and category growth.
- Conduct regular competitor benchmarking covering product range, pricing, promotions and merchandising strategies.
- Translate market intelligence into actionable category and commercial strategies.
- Stay abreast of emerging retail trends, new product concepts and alternative sourcing opportunities.
7. Retail & Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with Retail Operations to ensure merchandising strategies are effectively implemented at store level.
- Collaborate with Marketing and Trade Marketing teams on promotions, campaigns and seasonal activities.
- Partner with Supply Chain, Logistics and Finance to align inventory, cost and profitability objectives.
- Work with Store Development and Operations teams on category layouts, space utilisation and planogram strategies where relevant.
- Act as a key commercial partner to senior management on merchandising and category-related decisions.
8. Team Leadership & Capability Development
- Lead, coach and develop the merchandising team across category management, buying and commercial functions.
- Establish clear performance objectives, KPIs and development plans for the team.
- Build strong commercial, analytical and negotiation capabilities within the merchandising organisation.
- Foster a high-performance and data-driven culture focused on accountability, innovation and continuous improvement.
- Provide leadership and guidance on complex commercial and supplier negotiations.
9. Performance Management & Reporting
- Establish and monitor key merchandising KPIs including sales, gross margin, sell-through, inventory turnover, stock availability and category profitability.
- Analyse category and supplier performance and develop corrective action plans where required.
- Prepare regular merchandising performance reports and strategic recommendations for senior management.
- Use data and commercial insights to support decision-making and improve overall retail productivity.
Requirements
Job Requirements:
Education & Experience
- Bachelor's Degree in Business, Marketing, Retail Management, Supply Chain, Economics or a related discipline.
- 12–15+ years of experience in merchandising, buying, category management or commercial management within a large-scale retail environment.
- Proven experience managing multiple product categories and a sizeable merchandising/buying team.
- Strong experience within large-format retail, value retail, department stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, convenience or specialty retail.
- Experience working within a high-volume, multi-store retail network is highly preferred.
- Proven track record in driving sales growth, margin improvement and category profitability.
Technical & Commercial Skills
- Strong expertise in category management, assortment planning, pricing, buying and merchandising strategy.
- Strong commercial acumen with a deep understanding of retail P&L and gross margin management.
- Excellent supplier negotiation and vendor management skills.
- Strong understanding of retail pricing, promotions, inventory management and sell-through.
- Strong analytical capabilities with the ability to interpret sales, margin and inventory data.
- Experience with planograms, space planning and store-level merchandising would be an advantage.
- Strong proficiency in Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint; experience with ERP, retail merchandising systems, BI or data analytics tools is advantageous.
- Exposure to local and international sourcing, particularly from Asian markets, would be an advantage.
Leadership & Personal Attributes
- Strong strategic and commercial mindset with the ability to translate business objectives into actionable merchandising strategies.
- Proven ability to lead, develop and influence large merchandising teams.
- Excellent negotiation, communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Strong decision-making and problem-solving capabilities.
- Highly analytical, customer-focused and results-oriented.
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced, highly competitive retail environment.
- Strong ability to manage multiple categories, suppliers and commercial priorities simultaneously.
- High level of ownership, accountability and execution discipline.
