Vendor Manager

DESCRIPTION

E-distribution (selling supplies to offline stores) is a growing (>80% CAGR), large ($-Trillion) and multi-category (FMCG, Apparel, footwear, devices etc) opportunity. In terms of maturity, it is similar to where B2C e-commerce was in India in 2010 or WW e-commerce was in early 2000s. While large and exciting, it also a highly complex space where experienced, entrepreneurial leaders with a strong work ethics will create Amazon and world-wide first products and processes in areas of customer acquisition, order-solicitation, selection curation, pricing and fulfillment. If you are a customer obsessed, flexible, smart and analytical, strategic yet execution focused and passionate about e-commerce this is an opportunity for you to join us in building the next big thing in Amazon.

This role is in the Apparel e-distribution business. Amazon distribution’s vision for this business is to be the preferred choice (widest selection, cheapest prices, high availability) for Apparel retailers pan-India to procure ready-made garments across multiple categories (Menswear, Womenswear, Kidswear) for sale in their stores. In doing so, we will give these apparel manufacturers and brands, access to millions of these offline apparel sellers while increasing their depth and width of penetration in these stores.

For this business, we are looking for an outstanding vendor manager who will help us create this lowest cost supply chain.

As a Category / Vendor Manager in this team, you will be responsible for understanding the offline-apparel store as a customer. You will need to develop a strong understanding of what selection do they want and at what price-point. Working backwards from this information, you will leverage Amazon’s seller/vendor ecosystem to get the right manufacturers who can offer the best product quality at each price point.

This role will involve dealing with high levels of ambiguity, deep problem solving abilities that will help match our online competencies to the offline world and to think through large amounts of data and develop recommendations that will help us sell to a new customer base for Amazon. You must be a strong negotiator and be passionate about bringing the best selection, negotiating the best pricing and getting the best of Amazon’s product tools to help your business customer

You will play the role of a thinker and an implementer in equal measure the success in this role is as much about implementing as it is about conceptualizing or strategizing. There will be multiple metrics to balance including instock, vendor-delivery timelines, margins, days-of-cover, return policies, catalogue quality etc.
This person will have a mandate to look at all aspects of the business and make the right trade-offs that deliver an acceptable level of CX at the lowest cost possible.

What is can you expect from the Role?
1. You will develop the skills to work through ambiguous situations with the help of data, customer-insights and small-risks on 2-way doors.
2. Mix of short term projects with quick turn-around and some long term projects that would possibly redefine the way business is done going forward
3. You will learn Amazon best-practices in the areas of selection and pricing that will give you a strong foundation in the E-commerce, b2B and retail industries.

What is expected from the individual?
1. Ability to negotiate holistically to create win-win-win situations for Amazon, its vendors and our customers.
2. Ability to engage with multiple stake holders from across different teams in Amazon and influence them
3. Ability to consistently raise the bar on business-inputs using data and customer-insights and big-bold bets.

A day in the life:
1. Analyses data at an item level to understand what is selling and why, what is not selling and why not
2. Looks at multiple parameters of inventory (DOC, pricing competitiveness, lead-times) to identify optimization opportunities
3. Meets with customers and sales teams to hear feedback from the market which will help improve business inputs.
4. Talks to suppliers to understand what more they need from Amazon, their experience working with us Vs other players in the markets and identifies opportunities to create win-win with them. Ensures suppliers continue to consider Amazon distribution as the preferred partner for them.
5. Talks to in-stock teams on inventory health
6. Conducts meetings with partner teams to ensure that previously identified opportunities are being closed
7. Identifies new cost saving/ revenue enhancing opportunities and reviews them with leadership..

About the hiring group
Amazon Distribution wants to create the lowest cost supply chain for brands/manufacturers to get their products to neighborhood retail stores. We will pass on the benefits of an efficient, low cost supply chain to neighborhood stores (wide selection at competitive prices) and brands/manufacturers (low cost of distribution).
We operate like a startup with Amazon and are developing an entirely new set of core capabilities for Amazon in India.
We are on a noble mission to improve the livelihood of the neighborhood store-owner and through them improve accessibility of goods to the offline shopper in Tier i, II and III towns of India .

Job responsibilities
1. Identifies Business waste and Inefficiencies in sourcing, order processing, fulfillment, post-order processing. Deep-dives into data, studies processes and quantifies impact to be sure that the defect/inefficiency is important to solve for.
1.a Identifies the defect which is causing the wastes or deficiencies impacting the profitability of the business
1.b. Identifies the partner team which owns resolving that defect. Brainstorms how that team can eliminate the defect
1.c. Sets up/ Gets the partner team to setup metrics that show defect elimination
2. For new initiatives, identifies which is the best operations setup to deliver the right CX at lowest cost possible.
3. Ensures current setup is ready to scale with business growth

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• An understanding of and passion for e-commerce.
• Work experience is preferred (3-5 years).
• Experience in Business, category management, buying, Selling or finance
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Proven negotiation skills, influencing abilities
• Strong numerical and analytical aptitude
• Proven experience leading cross-functional projects
• Ability to think and react in a high-energy, fast-paced environment
• Good organizational skills including prioritizing, scheduling, time management, and meeting deadlines
• Detail-oriented
• Technical aptitude and agility to learn web-based tools
• Smart, enthusiastic, hard-working, and creative.
• Innovative, team oriented, and have a desire to participate in change and appreciate a dynamic environment with rapidly changing priorities.
• Experience in project ownership and using customer data to identify and prioritize opportunities.

The position will be based in Amazon’s office in Bangalore.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Master’s degree is preferred
• Experience in selling to small offline stores in any category is preferred.