Consumer & Marketplace Manager

Role Summary

The role holder will be responsible to grow sales & market share of the assigned category through provision of an effective and efficient product portfolio with the right price and channel segmentation, while improving profitability & growth. The role is responsible for developing the Business Unit’s overall consumer/category/marketplace strategy, as well as partnering and maintaining relationships with all key stakeholders to maximizes sales and profitability across all channels.

Role Responsibilities

- Create assortments informed by Marketplace capacity and insights that drive the integrated marketplace, seasonal strategies, and inspirational consumer experience.
- Drive sales from the assigned category by developing comprehensive business plans & long-term strategy
- Responsible for overall category profitability across all channels by leading the decision-making process on product pricing and intake profitability benchmarks; based on quantitatively driven insights for accurate planning.
- Develop assortment frameworks & module grids that align Category, Consumer & Channel mapping to elevate brand/category presence, drive segmentation & differentiation, revenue growth across the Marketplace.
- Leads the seasonal forecasting process to secure product access and allocations from brand; enabling growth while managing inventory, SOH and sell through considerations.
- Ensures data driven insights guide brand/category management decisions, including the introduction of new products, channel assortments driven by consumer mindset, product pricing across all regions.
- Ensures access to market intelligence through various sources, benchmark/evaluate competition pricing, new product introductions, category trends which may impact the profitability of assigned category.
- Collaborates with Wholesale channel to understand account specific requirements, investment trends, growth plans, product sell through to formulate the category business strategy for the channel.
- Provisions for achievement of Wholesale KPIs and Sales with the right channel, account & product strategy.
- Collaborates with Retail Merchandising & Category Management to gain insights on consumer trends, store sales, category contribution, growth opportunities, product gaps etc. to develop the category business strategy for the retail channels.
- Monitors & analyzes business performance of category sales, Gross Margins, sell out performance, along with, ensuring key Retail Performance KPIs ITR, GMROI etc. are achieved.
- Applies retail fundamentals like inventory turn, gross margin, markup, and sell through to drive informed & profitable pre-season and in-season decisions focused on assortment mix and depth.
- Monitors pricing from brand/s and liaises with suppliers on product launches, in-store dates, stock availability for product campaigns, marketing launches & events.
- Evaluates local market specific product gaps or opportunities within the category and engages with brand principals to plan, forecast, develop and provision for products in future seasons.
- Leads the Go-to-Market process and Seasonal Product Presentations, Merchandising frameworks for the category, ensuring clear communication of category, brand, product strategy with all partners & stakeholders.
- Works closely with Consumer & Marketplace Operations to ensure quantitative, insight driven forecasting with brand principals & decision-making on seasonal allocations & account access.
- Collaborates with Visual Merchandising function, Retail Brand Marketing, GTM Manager to ensure seasonal sell-in tools, showrooms, catalogs are up-to-date and provisioned for the seasonal calendar.
- Aligns with Brand Marketing function to ensure maximum visibility of their category through online and offline channels.
- Collaborates with the retail marketing function, to ensure maximum visibility of their category through retail & digital marketing

People Management

- Responsible for setting clear objectives and performance targets in collaboration with team members, ensuring alignment with overall organizational goals.
- This role involves actively mentoring, guiding, and providing direction to the team to cultivate skill development, operational efficiency, and continuous improvement.
- The incumbent applies structured performance management practices to monitor progress, troubleshoot issues, and drive the team towards achieving periodic KPIs.
- Through strategic oversight and regular feedback, the incumbent fosters a results-oriented environment, empowering the team to meet and exceed established benchmarks while supporting both individual and collective growth.

Technical / Functional Competencies

- Product / Category / Brand / Industry knowledge
- Experience with Presentations to large audiences
- Strong analytical skills to drive insights

Experience / Qualification

- Bachelor’s / Master’s degree in Business Management/ Marketing or equivalent, or Bachelor’s / Master’s degree in Buying and Merchandising
- A minimum of 4 - 5 years of relevant experience with at least 2 years in managing brand/category of products