Ankita Rathore

Achieved 20% YoY growth in FY25 and 7% in FY26 through strategic range planning and localization.
Drove a 30% surge in local production, leading to a 4% margin improvement through reduced duties and faster lead times.
Achieved 100% duty-free sourcing for shirts and scaled T-shirt from 31% to 96%, significantly improving landed cost efficiency.
Established core Buying & Merchandising processes for AE India, creating alignment across planning, allocation, and inventory teams.
Transitioned from manual to system-based allocation by implementing the Symphony tool, enhancing accuracy and reducing time-to-shelf.
Partnered with AE US teams to align seasonal assortments with Indian market needs, optimizing both relevance and sales performance.
Ensured consistent option freshness across 55+ stores, enabling effective product rotation and store productivity.

• Spearheaded menswear category strategy and seasonal assortment planning across core and fashion styles specifically for Tier 3 cities.
• Collaborated with design and sourcing teams to develop trend-right, margin-accretive collections.
• Defined pricing architecture based on cost benchmarks, competitor analysis, and consumer positioning.
• Analyzed sell-through and size curves to drive in-season reorders & markdowns.
• Executed GTM readiness including product story alignment, visual merchandising, and launch planning.
• Led post-season performance reviews to refine future assortments and drive category growth.
• Nominated as fast starter for MFL awards

• HIGHLIGHT
• - Awarded as “Emerging Leader” For FY20.
• - Received highest rating of “far exceeded expectations “ for 2 consecutive years
• - Key Contribution in Solly Junior Growth, Fy 20 LTL 18%
• - Store optimization planning to ensure optimum store & option freshness to achieve desired sales, 120 stores.
• - Deliver successful season/phase launch.
• - Track inward to ensure timely store stock availability.

• - Monitor sales performance weekly use tactical promotions and trading initiatives to drive top-line.
• - Range budget before season buying
• - Size ratios at fit level to ensure buy closest to the fit trend
• - Season launch, store catalogue, ensure in-store availability and cover
• - Store grading on the basis of sale and space contribution
• - Size wise sale trend of core lines, achieve 100% availability, reordering
• - Sell through, EOSS Planning, consolidation
• - Project: fixture mapping for the two modal stores to define BU’s capacity in terms of quantity.

• - Pre-Season: Season budgeting, assortment planOrder Vs. OTB tracking Pre allocation brand wise.
• - In Season: Sale performance analyzing basis sell through, stock to sale mix Consolidation to achieve size availability. Core-fashion allocation brand wise.
• - EOSS: Sale projections on current performance & elasticity of last season. OTB planning for EOSS Tracking stock levels weekly
• - Post Planning: RTV and RTW during the transition of EOSS and new seasonTo have sufficient space for launching new merchandise

• - Monitor sale performance, inventory
• - Pre allocation for season launch
• - Creating and analyzing reports weekly/monthly.
• - Store clustering on the basis of brand sales and sales contribution.
• - Ensuring stock dispatch and replenishment as per the sale
• - Setup of planogram for the new stores fixture and display norms.
• - Managing online partners