Job Title: Buying Planning & Merchandise Lead
Location: Gurugram, India
About Lenskart Lenskart is a tech-led, omni-channel eyewear company with a growing footprint across India and international markets. We operate an integrated value chain across design, manufacturing, retail, and e-commerce.
Role Overview The Buying Planning & Merchandise Lead will own the flow of merchandise from vendor to warehouse across all categories and regions. The role is anchored in demand forecasting, OTB, vendor capacity planning, and lead-time reduction — ensuring the right quantity of the right product reaches the right warehouse at the right time, at the right cost.
Key Responsibilities
Demand Forecasting
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Own global demand forecasting across categories, channels, and regions.
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Drive forecast accuracy through structured S&OP cycles, sell-through analysis, and seasonality modelling.
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Translate top-down financial plans and bottom-up category plans into a single, executable demand view.
OTB & Buying Planning
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Own the Open-to-Buy (OTB) process — building, tracking, and re-forecasting through the season.
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Manage inflow planning, phasing, and depth-vs-breadth decisions in line with sales, stock, and margin targets.
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Partner with the buying and category teams to convert assortment plans into actionable buy quantities.
Vendor Capacity Planning
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Lead capacity planning with the vendor base — aligning monthly and weekly production capacity with the demand plan.
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Work with sourcing and manufacturing partners to lock capacity ahead of peak periods and manage flex during demand swings.
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Build visibility into vendor performance on capacity, on-time delivery, and fill rates.
Lead-Time Reduction & Inflow
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Drive reduction of lead times across the vendor-to-warehouse cycle through better planning rhythm, order release discipline, and vendor collaboration.
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Improve PO-to-receipt timelines, in-transit visibility, and warehouse inbound predictability.
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Work with logistics and warehousing teams to smooth inflow and reduce bullwhip across the network.
Inventory & Allocation
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Own inventory health across warehouses — turns, cover, ageing, and excess.
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Drive allocation and replenishment models that maintain availability with controlled markdowns.
Collaboration & Leadership
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Work closely with Buying, Sourcing, Manufacturing, Logistics, Retail, E-commerce, and Finance.
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Build and lead a strong planning and merch supply chain team.
Key Requirements
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Relevant experience in demand planning, merchandise planning, OTB, or merchandise supply chain roles.
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Strong grounding in demand forecasting, OTB, vendor capacity planning, and lead-time management.
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Commercial understanding of inventory turns, fill rates, markdowns, and working capital.
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Hands-on with planning and analytics tools (e.g., SAP, Oracle, Anaplan, or equivalent).
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Experience working with vendor networks and cross-functional supply chain teams.
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Comfortable operating in a fast-moving, data-led environment.
Why Join Lenskart
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Own the end-to-end merchandise flow from vendor to warehouse at scale.
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Operate at the intersection of planning, supply chain, and commercial strategy.
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Work in a data-led, digitally native environment with international scope.
