Company Overview
The company is an apparel business focused on high-quality, everyday essentials designed for comfort and accessibility. The business is entering a growth phase, with plans to expand across Malaysia and Thailand, and is focused on building a scalable, multi-store retail platform driven by strong merchandising fundamentals and operational excellence. This role offers the opportunity to shape the commercial engine of the business from the ground up.
Role Overview
The Senior Manager of Merchandising will own the end-to-end merchandising function, including assortment strategy, category management, OTB planning, buying, inventory flow, pricing, and markdown optimization.
This role is the commercial owner of product performance, responsible for driving revenue, gross margin, and inventory productivity across the region.
Key Responsibilities:
Assortment, Buying & Planning
- Develop country assortment strategy across categories, seasons and store profiles
- Lead product selection, buying cycles, and SKU rationalization in alignment with brand direction
- Localize assortment based on market trends, customer insights and competitive landscape
In-Season Trading & Commercial Performance
- Monitor sell-through, stock ageing, pricing competitiveness and margin performance
- Drive in-season actions: markdowns, promotions, replenishment, stock re-balancing
- Optimize inventory turns and reduce slow-moving inventory while protecting margins
Inventory, Allocation & Coordination
- Oversee order management, deliveries, allocation and warehouse coordination
- Work closely with suppliers and logistics partners
- Improve stock availability and minimize out-of-stock and overstock risks
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Work closely with Retail Ops on VM direction, display standards, and category performance
- Define product priorities, hero SKUs, and in-store push strategies to drive sell-through
- Provide HQ with structured feedback on market needs, product gaps, and consumer preferences
Qualifications:
- 610+ years of merchandising, category management or buying experience in fashion/apparel or fast-moving retail
- Strong commercial acumen with deep understanding of assortment planning, forecasting, stock flow, and margin management
- Proven success managing seasonal collections and high SKU complexity
- Strong cross-functional communication and stakeholder management
- Experience working with China suppliers is an advantage
- Mandarin proficiency is required, as partners are from China
