Buying Planning & Merchandise Lead

Role overview

Buying Planning & Merchandise Lead at Lenskart

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.

Responsibilities

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

Employment details

• Location: Gurugram [India]

About the employer

• 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.