Merchandise Manager (Apparel)

Naidu Hall; Chennai District; On-site; INR 2,500,000 - 4,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Naidu Hall in Chennai seeks an accomplished Fashion Retail Buying professional to lead seasonal assortment planning, forecast trends, analyze market data, and negotiate with vendors to maximize sales and margins. The ideal candidate will drive strategic procurement across apparel and related categories and mentor the buying team.

The role requires managing budgets, coordinating with planning and operations to ensure on-time deliveries, optimizing inventory and gross margin, and partnering with

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years experience in Fashion Retail Buying.
• Advanced Excel skills (Pivot Tables, VLOOKUPs), Word and Internet.
• Knowledge of planning processes, analytical tools, and inventory management.
• Bachelor's Degree; Master's degree preferred.

Responsibilities

• Analyze market trends and forecast requirements for seasons.
• Manage receipt flow and ensure timely deliveries by suppliers.
• Assist with planning and executing pricing strategies aligned to fiscal duties.
• Develop seasonal assortments to maximise brand value, sales and profits.
• Collaborate with planning and operations to maximise results.
• Ensure orders are serviced and fulfilled as raised.
• Oversee seasonal buy budgets and buy strategies for non‑apparel.
• Optimize sales, inventory levels and gross margin with vendors and internal teams.
• Analyze sell-through and recommend product corrections.
• Evaluate vendor performance and manage active/inactive suppliers.
• Develop merchandising concepts and align buying direction with target market.
• Build relationships with cross-functional teams and grow the buying team.

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Master's degree (preferred)

Tools

Excel (Pivot Tables)

VLOOKUP

MS Word

Internet

Job description

Role & responsibilities

• Analyze changing market trends, forecast requirement, identify supplier and buy as per season
• Manages receipt flow and secures timely deliveries by suppliers
• Assists with planning and executing pricing strategies in accordance with fiscal responsibilities, maximizing sales, margin, & inventory management
• Develop seasonal assortment plans to maximize the development of brand, sales and profits for Apparel
• Partner along with planning and operations team in order to maximize results
• Ensuring the servicing of requirement against the order rasied and fullfillment
• Responsible for the seasonal buy budget and buy strategy for Non-Apparel departments
• Optimize sales, inventory levels and gross margin by analyzing, evaluating/recommending, negotiating and executing adjustments as needed, with their business partners (Vendors, Planning & AR)
• Analyze the sell through and suggest for product corrections
• Vendor performance analysis and sorting of active and inactive vendors
• Reverse working of product delivery to store with lead time from order to servicing based on monthly requirement
• Develop overall merchandising concept for the division and transfer concept into right merchandise direction to suit target market.
• Build and leverage relationships with cross-functional teams
• Build and develop the buying team

Preferred candidate profile

• Minimum 10 years experience in Fashion Retail Buying
• Advanced computer skills (Excel pivot tables/ v-lookups/etc., Word, Internet)
• Expert level of knowledge around planning processes, analytical tools, and managing a planning organization
• Knowledge of supply chain management demand, inventory, purchasing and delivering plans
• Any Bachelor's Degree
• Master's degree will be an additional preference