Assistant Category Manager_General merchandise

Job Title: Asst. Category Manager

Department: General merchandise & Personal care

Reports To: Category Head

Summary:

A Category Manager is responsible for overseeing the entire product development lifecycle, from concept ideation to market launch, ensuring new products align with market needs, business objectives, and company strategy. They lead cross-functional teams, manage project timelines and budgets, and drive innovation to develop successful products that meet customer requirements and deliver a competitive advantage. Product Ideology should cover as -Do we need it? Can we make it? Can we sell it? Post launch responsible for managing the scalability, sustainability & profitability.

Key Responsibilities:

Market Analysis and Strategy Development:

• Conduct comprehensive market research to identify customer needs, market trends, and competitor analysis to inform product development strategy.
• Develop compelling product roadmaps and strategic plans to prioritize features and functionalities based on market insights and business goals.
• Define target market segments and develop clear product positioning to differentiate offerings to solve pain areas around product usage occasion or add convenience value to the product.

Product Concept Generation and Evaluation:

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (design, Sourcing, packaging, growth) to brainstorm and refine new product concepts.
• Assess the feasibility and commercial viability of new product ideas through customer survey analysis, cost projections, and potential margin earning.
• Develop detailed product specifications and requirements documents to guide product development prior to launch.

Customer Focus and Feedback Integration:

• Conduct user research and gather customer feedback to inform product design and feature development.
• Analyse customer data to identify pain points and opportunities for product improvement.
• Advocate for customer needs within the development team to ensure product meets target customer expectations.

Product Launch and Commercialization:

• Develop comprehensive launch plans, including on line app requirement, product description, content requirement and Pricing.
• Collaborate with Growth and content teams to execute successful product launches and manage post-launch customer survey activities.
• Monitor product performance post-launch, gather customer feedback, and implement necessary adjustments to optimize customer penetration
• Monitor the post launch supply chain including monthly sales forecast, price negotiation, stock availability, Pricing and suppliers management.
• Post launch cost optimisation of product sourcing, packaging, supply chain, quality testing and sales return.
• Overall managing P&L of launched new products

Required Skills and Qualifications:

• Master / Bachelor's degree, BBA allied subject, or a related field.
• Proven experience (5-7 years) in Category management/ sourcing, ideally in [General merchandise market place/ product led company / D2C industry]
• Strong understanding of market research methodologies, customer segmentation, and competitive analysis
• Excellent project management skills, including ability to manage complex timelines and budgets
• Strong leadership and communication skills to effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams
• Technical proficiency in product development processes and finalisation
• Ability to analyse data and make informed decisions based on market insights and customer feedback
• Suppliers negotiation, cross functional engagement, labelling declaration and supply chain control
• Fair knowledge of supply chain and distribution to keep a close track of product performance post launch
• Ability to take lead in setting up in-house production in long run for all scalable, sustainable and profitable products.