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Job details:
Company: Morphstar Studio Private Limited
Engagement: Fractional / Project-Based
Industry: Fashion & Footwear
Location: India | Remote/Hybrid
About Morphstar
Morphstar Studio is an early-stage footwear startup building a new category of adaptable women’s footwear.
Our first product is a foldable heel that can transition from a heel to a flatter, more comfortable form, allowing women to move between style and comfort without changing their shoes.
We have a working prototype and are now moving towards commercial manufacturing and our first market launch.
As a new brand with no historical sales data, one of the most important decisions we need to make is what our first commercial assortment should look like and how much inventory we should commit to it.
We are looking for an experienced Fractional Head of Buying & Merchandising to work directly with the founder and help us make these decisions.
What We Need Help With
We are looking for someone who can help us answer questions such as:
- How many styles should we launch with?
- How many colours should we offer per style?
- Which colours should form the initial assortment?
- What should our size curve look like?
- How many units should we manufacture per SKU?
- How should we balance assortment breadth vs inventory depth?
- Which products should receive deeper inventory?
- What should our total initial buy look like?
- How should MOQs and manufacturing lead times influence our assortment?
- How much inventory risk should a new brand take at launch?
- What should our replenishment and reorder strategy look like?
- How should pricing, margins and commercial viability influence the range?
The goal is to leave the engagement with a clear, commercially thought-through launch assortment and buying plan, rather than making these decisions based purely on instinct.
What You Would Work On
The engagement would broadly involve:
Assortment Strategy
Recommend the number of styles, colours, sizes and overall SKU architecture for our first launch.
Range Planning
Help structure the collection across hero products, colours, price points and customer needs.
Size Curve Planning
Recommend initial size ratios and quantities, particularly given that we do not yet have historical sales data.
Initial Buy Planning
Recommend units per SKU and total launch inventory while balancing customer choice, MOQs, available capital and dead-stock risk.
Inventory Depth vs Breadth
Help us determine where we should offer variety and where we should concentrate inventory.
Demand & Scenario Planning
Build assumptions for a conservative, base and stronger-than-expected launch and recommend how inventory should be approached under each.
Replenishment Strategy
Define reorder points, inventory buffers and an approach for replenishing winning SKUs while limiting exposure to slow-moving products.
Commercial Input
Work alongside the founder and finance team to ensure assortment decisions make sense in the context of product cost, pricing, margins and working capital.
Who We're Looking For
We are specifically looking for someone with strong hands-on experience in:
- Footwear buying and merchandising
- Women's footwear preferred
- Range and assortment planning
- Merchandise planning
- Inventory and buy planning
- Size-level planning
- Category management
- Pricing and margin thinking
- Working with manufacturers and MOQs
Experience at a leading footwear, fashion, D2C, retail or e-commerce brand would be highly relevant.
We would particularly value someone who has experience launching a new brand, category or product range without relying entirely on historical sales data.
This is a senior strategic role. We are not looking for a production merchandiser whose primary responsibility is factory coordination, sampling or order follow-ups.
Engagement Structure
This is a fractional / project-based engagement, not a full-time position.
You would work closely with the founder during the pre-launch period to help us make our initial assortment and inventory decisions and establish a merchandising framework that we can continue using after launch.
The exact scope, duration and time commitment can be structured based on your recommended approach.
To Apply
Please share your profile along with a short note covering:
- Your experience in footwear/fashion buying and merchandising
- Brands or categories you have worked with
- Whether you have experience creating an initial assortment without historical sales data
- How you would broadly approach building the first buy for a new footwear brand
- Your availability and expected commercials for a fractional/project engagement
If you know someone who has spent years making real buying, range and inventory decisions in footwear, we'd love an introduction.
Click on Apply to know more.