Category Planner

**Roles and Responsibilities**

Job Description: Category Planner - Staples
- Organization Context:

- ElasticRun is a Deep-Reach Kirana Commerce Platform, unlocking the next wave of consumption in rural India. The platform aggregates Brands and Kirana stores, helping businesses to reach traditionally unserved stores, get permanent shelf space and then mind space of consumers. Technology is at the heart of our platform, a demand
- generation and fulfilment engine, crowdsourced logistics network; makes it possible to serve small ticket sizes of individual stores.- Role Context:

- Rurban Distribution is a B2B channel within ElasticRun which focuses on large scale distribution in all the Tier 2/3 Cities, Towns and Small Towns in India. Rurban focuses on serving Kirana and other General stores with Staples, General Merchandize and FMCG products.- Context of GM category:

- The GT market in the target cities & towns is very large. It is addressed entirely by wholesalers excepting some leading brands in specific sub-categories that may have a distribution infrastructure. The product profile is typically a notch or two below what we see in the urban markets. However, this is a complete whitespace for the category in
- these markets. Therefore, this is an immense opportunity for ElasticRun.-
- Job Responsibilities:

- The Category Planner is responsible for:
- Annual / Long term plans - Preparation of AOP, creation of assortment plans and seasonal / festive buys
- Reporting & KPI management - Tracking category’s key metrics
- Closely work with central planning & supply chain team for inwards/storage capacities across warehouses
- Ensure optimum inventory placement across different WH/regions
- Liquidation of aged and slow-moving inventory
- Drive projects and initiatives to streamline process and increase process efficiency
- Weekly/monthly/season performance review and analytics support to category managers
- Autonomously drive and iterate on key analyses to uncover insights leveraging existing and new information

sources- Bring together insights to develop well-rounded recommendations and help communicate them effectively
- Manage stakeholder expectations, communicate effectively

Experience
- Handled Staples / Commodities category at a national level in B2C retail or B2B retail for 2-4 years.- Qualifications and Requirements- Good understanding of Staples relevant categories in Retail/ C&C/ eCom/ eB2B.
- Expertise in category management and robust understanding at category and subcategory level.
- Understand market and customer dynamics across multiple states in the country.
- Ability to collaborate across contributing functions in Buying, Supply Chain and Sales teams.
- Excellent at analysis & data interpretation for insights
- MBA / Executive MBA from a reputed university will be preferred.
- 4-6 years’ experience preferably with retailers / e-commerce firms /distributors etc.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
- Good stakeholder management including senior leaders & internal teams.

Reporting:

- This position will report into the Division Manager - Staples.- Location: This position will be based out of Mumbai- ElasticRun is an equal opportunity employer and is dedicated to expanding its commitments and investments to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive company culture and innovation ecosystem. We are strongly committed to the values and policy of equal employment opportunity across our employment practices- For more information on ElasticRun, please visit:
Role:
BD / Pre Sales - Other
- Salary:
Not Disclosed by Recruiter
- Industry:
FMCG
- Functional Area:
Sales & Business Development
- Role Category:
BD / Pre Sales
- Employment Type:
Full Time, Permanent
- Key Skills

Staples

Category Handling

Category Planner
- Education
- PG:
MBA/PGDM in Any Specialization

Company Profile
- ElasticRun
- ElasticRun extends the reach of brands direct distribution networks to deep rural markets. It enables access to a set of net new stores and customers for the brands, which were not accessible through the traditional distribution networks. ElasticRun network helps eCommerce companies reach the customers in far flung rural areas through its crowdsourced logistics network. The rich transaction data generated on ElasticRun platform enables financial institutions to bring in a large number of rural stores as their SME customers. The same set of data further helps the brands to sharpen their marketing offerings to the rural markets. The deep reach is made possible through the ElasticRun technology platform that enables a “no capex” and “variable cost” crowdsourced logistics network. Through its rural Kirana network, ElasticRun platform would channel trade, finance and data of $600 Bn consumption in India.ElasticRun is an equal opportunity employer and is dedicated to expanding its commitments and investments to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive company culture and innovat