Job Title: Category Lead Staples

Department: Commercial / Buying & Merchandising

Location: Hyderabad

Type: Full-time

Key Responsibilities

Business & Category Leadership

- Lead category strategy for a consumer-facing retail business across stores and digital channels.
- Drive sales growth, gross margin, basket size, and market share through customer-led category plans.
- Develop annual category roadmaps, trading calendars, forecasts, and growth initiatives aligned to business targets.
- Use shopper insights, sales data, and market trends to continuously improve category performance.

Merchandising & Assortment Planning

- Define assortment strategy based on shopper missions, local demand, seasonality, and consumer trends.
- Optimize product mix, pricing architecture, promotions, and on-shelf/on-app availability to maximize conversion.
- Partner with merchandising, planning, and marketing teams to improve sell-through and inventory productivity.

Vendor & Supply Chain Management

- Build and manage strategic supplier relationships to deliver value, innovation, and consistent product availability.
- Negotiate commercial terms, promotions, trade investments, and margin opportunities that strengthen category performance.
- Work with supply chain teams to maintain healthy stock levels, reduce stock-outs, and support seamless customer fulfillment.

Retail Operations Excellence

- Drive consistent execution standards across retail touchpoints,



including stores, promotions, and customer-facing displays.
- Track key retail KPIs such as sales, conversion, stock turns, availability, shrinkage, and category profitability.
- Ensure operational discipline and alignment across channels to deliver a robust and consistent customer experience.

Team Leadership

- Lead and develop category, merchandising, and cross-functional teams to deliver commercial and customer outcomes.
- Build a high-performance culture focused on agility, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Partner with HR and leadership teams on talent development, capability building, and succession planning.

Market & Competitive Analysis

- Analyze consumer behavior, market trends, competitor pricing, and assortment changes across the retail landscape.
- Identify growth opportunities in emerging segments, private label, seasonal events, and omnichannel customer journeys.
- Drive innovation in category strategy, customer engagement, and retail activation to improve shopper relevance.

Financial Management

- Own category P&L; with accountability for sales, margin, markdowns, and working capital performance.
- Drive profitability through pricing, mix optimization, promotional effectiveness, and cost control.
- Monitor budgets, forecasts, and retail performance metrics to support sustainable business growth.

📌 Category Head - Staples (Buyer & Merchandising) (Hyderabad)
🏢 Hector and Streak Consulting
📍 Hyderabad