Manager/Lead - Merchandising - Home & Lifestyle

Duties and responsibilities:
- Own the end-to-end merchandising strategy across assigned categoriesfrom customer insight and assortment planning to pricing, inventory health and commercial performance.
- Own category performance across online and offline channels, driving revenue, margin, and inventory efficiency.
- Lead assortment planning, range architecture, seasonal launches, and product lifecycle management.
- Design and curate commercially successful collections while maintaining premium aesthetic.
- Identify emerging global and local design trends, sales trends, consumer behaviour and white-space opportunities for new product development and optimizing current product mix.
- Monitor inventory health and work closely with Business Intelligence and Supply Chain to ensure optimal stock availability. Leverage merchandising analytics, AI tools and BI dashboards to improve forecasting, assortment optimisation and pricing decisions.
- Establish and track key merchandising KPIs including sales, gross margin, sell-through, stock cover, inventory turnover.
- Collaborate with Marketing and E-commerce teams on product launches, campaigns, and merchandising calendars.
- Build strong relationships with domestic and international vendors to ensure timely product availability and quality standards.
- Build a high-performance merchandising function through coaching, structured reviews, capability development and a culture of commercial ownership.
- Present category performance reviews, business insights, and action plans to senior leadership.
Desired Candidate Profile:
- Bachelor's degree in Fashion, Retail Management, Business Administration, or a related field. An MBA is an added advantage.
- 8+ years of merchandising experience in home and lifestyle.
- Proven experience managing category P&L and driving commercial outcomes.
- Strong understanding of assortment planning, inventory management, and pricing strategies.
- Excellent analytical skills with advanced proficiency in Excel; experience with ERP systems and BI tools is preferred.
- Strong stakeholder management, negotiation, and leadership skills.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial, and high-growth environment.
Success in this role looks like:
- Launching commercially successful collections season after season.
- Improving sell-through.
- Building differentiated assortments customers can't find elsewhere (on trend, design driven functional products).
- Increasing average order value through smarter category architecture.
- Driving profitable category growth.