Category Lead - Beauty & Wellness
Role Summary
The Category Head – Beauty & Wellness will be responsible for building, launching, and scaling the Beauty & Wellness business. The role combines full P&L ownership, category strategy, assortment curation, brand partnerships, commercial trading, and cross-functional leadership to create a differentiated destination for beauty and wellness customers. The role will drive revenue growth, profitability, customer acquisition, retention, and long-term category expansion across digital and Phygital store.
Key Responsibilities
1. Category Strategy & P&L Ownership
- Define and execute the Beauty & Wellness category vision aligned with overall business objectives and customer strategy.
- Own category P&L including revenue, gross margin, contribution margin, inventory productivity, marketing efficiency, and profitability.
- Develop and execute a 1–3 year growth roadmap covering assortment expansion, brand portfolio development, marketplace opportunities, omnichannel initiatives, and regional growth.
- Analyze market trends, consumer behavior, competitive landscape, and emerging opportunities across beauty and wellness sectors within the GCC.
- Identify whitespace opportunities and new growth segments to drive category leadership.
2. Assortment & Brand Portfolio Management
- Build and manage a differentiated portfolio across:
- Skincare
- Makeup
- Fragrance
- Haircare
- Personal Care
- Wellness & Self-Care
- Vitamins & Supplements
- Functional Nutrition
- Women's Wellness
- Fitness & Recovery
- Clean, Natural & Sustainable Products
- Develop category architecture including price ladders, customer segments, hero products, exclusive launches, bundles, and subscription offerings.
- Source, negotiate, and onboard leading regional and international brands including the marketplace model.
- Lead commercial negotiations covering margins, rebates, marketing investments, exclusivity, payment terms, inventory commitments, and promotional support.
- Establish strategic partnerships with key suppliers to drive innovation, exclusives, and category differentiation.
3. Commercial Trading, Pricing & Growth
- Build and execute the annual trading calendar covering key retail moments such as Ramadan, Eid, Summer, Back-to-School, White Friday, Singles Day, 11.11, 12.12, New Year Wellness, and gifting occasions.
- Define pricing and promotional strategies balancing competitiveness, premium positioning, customer value, and profitability.
- Drive growth through promotions, bundles, replenishment programs, subscriptions, and loyalty initiatives.
- Monitor and optimize key KPIs including:
- Revenue
- Margin
- Conversion
- Average Order Value (AOV)
- Sell-through
- Customer Acquisition
- Repeat Purchase Rate
- Inventory Turnover
- Category Market Share
- Lead weekly and monthly business reviews and implement corrective actions to maximize performance.
4. Customer Experience & Omnichannel Merchandising
- Partner with Product, UX, CRM, and Marketing teams to create a best-in-class Beauty & Wellness shopping experience.
- Develop category navigation, product discovery journeys, routines, wellness goals, personalized recommendations, and educational content.
- Ensure best-in-class product content including ingredients, benefits, certifications, usage guidance, routines, reviews, before-and-after imagery, and expert recommendations.
- Drive onsite merchandising strategy including category pages, landing pages, search optimization, ranking logic, and cross-category recommendations.
- Build customer engagement programs focused on replenishment, loyalty, subscriptions, sampling, and community-led discovery.
- Identify opportunities to integrate beauty and wellness with fashion and lifestyle categories to increase basket size and customer lifetime value.
5. Supply Chain, Inventory & Operations
- Partner with Planning and Supply Chain teams to manage demand forecasting, inventory investments, replenishment, launch planning, and lifecycle management.
- Optimize inventory health, stock cover, markdown exposure, and working capital efficiency.
- Ensure operational readiness for beauty and wellness-specific requirements including storage, shelf-life management, temperature-sensitive products, compliance, and returns handling.
- Drive availability and fulfillment excellence while minimizing stock-outs and excess inventory.
6. Marketing, Partnerships & Customer Growth
- Collaborate with Brand Marketing, CRM, Social Commerce, Influencer Marketing, and Performance Marketing teams to drive customer acquisition and retention.
- Develop integrated category campaigns, product launches, influencer partnerships, and brand collaborations.
- Build category awareness through educational content, wellness programs, expert partnerships, and community engagement initiatives.
- Drive customer lifecycle strategies focused on repeat purchases, replenishment behavior, and long-term loyalty.
7. Team Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Build and lead a high-performing team across category management, buying, merchandising, and trading.
- Foster a culture of commercial excellence, customer obsession, innovation, and accountability.
- Collaborate closely with Product, Operations, Finance, Marketing, CRM, Marketplace, and Retail teams to deliver category objectives.
- Mentor and develop future category leaders within the organization.
