Head - Visual Merchandising - India & Int'l

Job description

Mission Brief: Lead the Function That Turns Stores Into Phygital Experiences We are looking for a visionary leader to own Visual Merchandising across 2,000+ Lenskart and Owndays stores globally — and to redefine what VM means for an eyewear brand moving at Lenskart's scale. This isn't about arranging shelves — it's about building and leading the function that designs “Phygital” (Physical + Digital) experiences that convert visitors into buyers. Your mandate is to prove the value of our products through storytelling customers can touch, and to build the team and standards that make it happen everywhere, every time. How do you make someone feel the lightness of Air eyeglasses without weighing them? How do you make the magic of Lenskart Switch click in ten seconds flat? You will set the VM vision, build the prototypes and playbooks, and lead the team that scales the ones that work across the world's largest eyewear retail network. This is a hands-on leadership role. Your work — and your team's — sits at the intersection of stores, product, design, and data. Core Mandate: Leading Visual Merchandising as a Growth Function VM Strategy & Conversion-Centric Design • VM Vision & Standards: Own the visual merchandising strategy and set the standards for in-store prototypes and interactive experiences that solve customer friction and dramatize product USPs — durability tests, weight comparisons, fit and function demonstrations. • Feature-to-Interaction Translation: Direct how product features — lightweight frames, Switch glasses, lens technology, pricing clarity — get translated into physical interactions, not posters. • Funnel Thinking: Instil a culture across the VM team that sees every display as a conversion funnel, not a fixture — diagnosing where customers hesitate and designing the moment that resolves it. 2. Digital VM Integration & the Phygital Journey • Smart Retail Tech: Own the strategy for smart mirrors, digital signage, and interactive screens to create a seamless journey between online and offline shopping. • Tech-Fluent Leadership: Guide the team's use of electronics, sensors, or AR/VR to bridge the gap between the physical product and digital information. • Omnichannel Continuity: Set the design principles so a customer's journey feels continuous whether they start on the app or walk into a store. 3. Experimental Prototyping & Team Leadership • Build & Lead the Team: Recruit, mentor, and lead a team of visual merchandisers and experience designers who can execute at pace across a global store network. • Test, Learn, Iterate: Champion rapid experimentation in live stores; use conversion, dwell time, attachment rate, and qualitative feedback to decide what scales and what dies. • Ground-Level Observation: Ensure the team works directly with store teams to observe real customer behaviour and pinpoint friction points as they happen. 4. Data-Driven Layouts & Global Scalability • Analytics Partnership: Partner with retail analytics leadership to track footfall, heatmaps, and conversion rates, and adjust store “UX” based on performance. • Modular Design at Scale: Own the design system so that VM solutions are innovative yet modular — deployable across 2,000+ diverse store formats worldwide. Playbooks & Governance: Build the playbooks, budgets, and rollout systems so successful ideas scale consistently across the global store network. • Launch Alignment: Partner with product, supply, and marketing leadership to align in-store experiences with launches and campaigns. The Essentials • The “Phygital” Mindset: You understand how a customer moves through a physical space as intuitively as they move through an app. • Leadership Track Record: Proven experience leading a Visual Merchandising or retail experience design function, including building and managing a team, at a multi-format retail scale. • Problem-Solver's Eye: You don't just see a display — you see a conversion funnel, and you lead your team to design backward from the friction point. • Tech-Fluency: Comfortable directing work involving electronics, sensors, or AR/VR to bridge physical product and digital information. • Prototyping & Rollout Experience: Track record of designing and scaling physical or digital-physical installations across large, varied store networks. • Data Comfort: Able to read footfall, dwell time, heatmap, and conversion data and translate it into design and resourcing decisions. • Budget & Vendor Ownership: Experience owning a VM budget and managing external vendors, fabricators, and technology partners. The Mindset • Builder's Mindset You see a store as a system engineered for conversion, and you're always looking for what can be tested and improved. • Curious About Friction You notice the exact moment a customer hesitates, and you're driven to design that moment away, at scale. • Comfortable in Imperfect Environments You'd rather test something in a live, real-world store than perfect it on a slide. • Cross-Functional Operator You move easily between store teams, product, supply, and marketing to get an idea from sketch to shelf — and to 2,000 shelves. • Bias for Iteration Over Perfection You ship a version 1, watch how customers actually behave, and improve from there. • High-Agency Leader You build the playbook as you go, and you're as comfortable on the shop floor as you are presenting to leadership.