Senior Footwear Product Manager

The Footwear category lead is responsible for developing and implementing a strategic assortment plan that aligns with customer preferences and market trends.

• Achieve Category Targets: Develop a competitive and customer-relevant footwear assortment to achieve budgeted targets.
• Product Launch Planning: Plan product launches ahead of seasons, ensuring timely execution of collections aligned with footwear trends and seasonal demands.
• Vendor Collaboration: Collaborate with vendors to create assortments that balance style, price, and functionality for various consumer segments.
• Category Optimization: Incorporate feedback from planning, retail operations, and customer insights to refine the range continuously.
• Product Line Selection: Select product lines considering materials, design elements, comfort features, price points, and value propositions.
• Commercial Decision-Making: Finalize the product assortment and approve commercial selling prices to ensure competitiveness and profitability.

• Customer Insights: Understand customer behavior, aspirations, activity-based requirements, and lifestyle trends to translate them into category offerings.
• Competitor Analysis: Conduct regular competitor analysis to stay informed of market pricing, offers, and assortment strategies.
• Product Development: Bridge customer needs with product development by collaborating with designers and influencing the creative process with data-backed insights.
• Post-Launch Performance: Lead post-launch performance analysis, identify gaps, and implement corrective measures quickly.
• Marketing Initiatives: Work with the marketing team to highlight footwear launches through campaigns, influencer tie-ups, and digital platforms.
• Market Visits: Lead market visits with the team to study competitor offerings, customer footfall, and retail execution.

• Partnerships: Build and nurture long-term partnerships with footwear vendors and manufacturers, ensuring a consistent supply chain.
• Vendor Pipeline: Develop a pipeline of alternative vendors to safeguard supply and enable category scalability.
• Vendor Expectations: Orient vendors about the company's expectations regarding design, quality, sustainability, and delivery schedules.
• Vendor Evaluation: Provide inputs for vendor evaluation based on quality, pricing, capacity, and reliability.
• Order Management: Oversee order placement and approval of materials, styles, molds, and pre-production samples.
• Delivery and Escalation: Ensure on-time delivery and resolve escalations related to vendor delays, quality issues, or material shortages.
• Support System: Support vendors with order consolidation, cost optimization, and bulk buying strategies.
• Relationship Building: Strengthen vendor relationships by building a collaborative and solution-oriented support system.

• Open-to-Buy Management: Manage and optimize the Open-to-Buy (OTB) budget for the Footwear category ensuring maximum ROI.
• Costing and Pricing: Analyze costing structures, pricing strategies, and margin behavior to guide commercial decision-making.
• Negotiations: Lead vendor negotiations to achieve favorable commercial terms without compromising product quality.
• Category Performance: Monitor category performance to ensure budget discipline and profitability.

• Visual Merchandising: Work closely with the marketing and visual merchandising teams to ensure impactful footwear displays across all stores.
• Product Launches: Plan new product launches, effective space utilization, and suggest fixture improvements to enhance product visibility.
• Planograms: Collaborate with retail teams to develop and review Planograms, ensuring consistent brand presentation.
• In-Store Experience: Drive initiatives to enhance in-store experience, making footwear displays attractive, accessible, and customer-friendly.

• Team Building: Build, coach, and mentor a high-performing team to achieve category goals and develop footwear-specific expertise.
• Engagement and Motivation: Foster engagement, motivation, and ownership within the team.
• Emerging Leaders: Identify and groom emerging leaders with footwear product knowledge, attention to detail, and merchandising insights.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Encourage cross-functional collaboration to enhance learning and execution.