Senior Footwear Category Executive

Job Title: Category Manager

This is a leadership role where you will be responsible for managing the Footwear category in our business.

Key Responsibilities:

• Assortment Planning: Develop a competitive and customer-relevant footwear assortment to achieve category targets (sales, margin, stock turn, and sell-through).
• Product Launches: Plan product launches ahead of seasons, ensuring timely execution of collections aligned with footwear trends, seasonal demands.
• Category Management: Collaborate with the planning team to create assortments that balance style, price, and functionality for various consumer segments.
• Range Optimization: Incorporate feedback from planning, retail operations, and customer insights to refine the range continuously.
• Vendor Partnerships: 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.

Market Focus and Strategy:

• Customer Understanding: 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.
• Collaboration: Bridge customer needs with product development by collaborating with designers and influencing the creative process with data-backed insights.
• Post-Launch Analysis: Lead post-launch performance analysis, identify gaps, and implement corrective measures quickly.
• Marketing: 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.

Vendor Management:

• Partnership Development: Build and nurture long-term partnerships with footwear vendors and manufacturers, ensuring a consistent supply chain.
• Vendor Evaluation: Develop a pipeline of alternative vendors to safeguard supply and enable category scalability.
• Vendor Communication: Orient vendors about the company's expectations regarding design, quality, sustainability, and delivery schedules.
• Order Placement: Provide inputs for vendor evaluation based on quality, pricing, capacity, and reliability.
• Delivery Management: Oversee order placement and approval of materials, styles, molds, and pre-production samples.
• Escalation Resolution: Ensure on-time delivery and resolve escalations related to vendor delays, quality issues, or material shortages.
• Support Services: 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.

Financial Planning:

• Budget Management: Manage and optimize the Open-to-Buy (OTB) budget for the Footwear category ensuring maximum ROI.
• Costing Analysis: 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.
• Performance Monitoring: Monitor category performance to ensure budget discipline and profitability.

Product Presentation:

• Visual Merchandising: Work closely with the marketing and visual merchandising teams to ensure impactful footwear displays across all stores.
• Store Layout: Plan new product launches, effective space utilization, and suggest fixture improvements to enhance product visibility.
• Planogram Development: 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.

People Management:

• Team Leadership: Build, coach, and mentor a high-performing team to achieve category goals and develop footwear-specific expertise.
• Engagement: 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.

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