Global Retail & Omnichannel Director at Hire Resolve

Job Description

• A leading luxury fashion company is looking for an experienced Global Retail & Omnichannel Director with strong experience in luxury retail leadership, omnichannel commerce, retail expansion, and global market development to join their team in Johannesburg. The successful candidate will be responsible for driving strategic growth, commercial performance, and international expansion while ensuring world-class customer experiences across physical retail, e-commerce, mobile, social commerce, and other customer channels. This senior leadership role will oversee retail operations across South Africa and international markets, with a strong focus on operational excellence, profitability, brand consistency, and customer satisfaction.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute the retail growth and global expansion strategy.
• Identify and evaluate market opportunities across South Africa, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the United Kingdom, and North America.
• Lead the opening of flagship stores, luxury boutiques, shop-in-shops, and pop-up retail experiences.
• Establish strategic partnerships with premium department stores and luxury retail groups.
• Develop country and city expansion plans.
• Lead the integration of physical retail stores and e-commerce platforms.
• Drive a seamless customer experience across online, mobile, social commerce, and in-store channels.
• Implement and optimise omnichannel capabilities, including Click & Collect, Endless Aisle, clienteling, online returns in-store, and unified customer profiles.
• Drive e-commerce growth while maintaining luxury brand standards.
• Oversee merchandise planning, forecasting, allocation, replenishment, and stock optimisation.
• Ensure product availability across time, location, size, quantity, and price.
• Minimise markdowns while maximising sales and profitability through effective inventory management.
• Collaborate with design, production, and supply chain teams to ensure product delivery timelines are met.
• Establish luxury retail operational standards, SOPs, policies, and service standards.
• Ensure exceptional in-store presentation, visual merchandising, and brand consistency.
• Monitor operational KPIs and implement continuous improvement initiatives.
• Develop a high-touch luxury customer service culture and VIP client engagement programmes.
• Implement CRM and clienteling strategies to improve customer retention and lifetime value.
• Deliver annual revenue, margin, and profitability targets.
• Analyse sales performance, customer trends, and market intelligence.
• Monitor retail productivity and store profitability.
• Lead pricing, promotional, and sales optimisation strategies.
• Oversee retail demand planning and inventory strategy.
• Manage relationships with suppliers and logistics partners to ensure product availability.
• Ensure effective management of local and international distribution networks.
• Recruit, mentor, and develop a high-performing retail leadership team.
• Build succession pipelines and drive performance management and talent development.
• Foster a culture of accountability, luxury service excellence, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's Degree in Retail Management, Business Management, Commerce, or a related field.
• MBA or relevant postgraduate qualification is advantageous.
• Luxury Retail Leadership certification is advantageous.
• Minimum 10–15 years of senior retail leadership experience.
• At least 5 years of experience managing luxury or premium fashion brands.
• Proven experience scaling retail businesses regionally or globally.
• Extensive omnichannel retail experience.
• Experience managing multi-store and multi-country operations.
• Strong understanding of luxury consumer behaviour.
• Experience across merchandising, buying, inventory planning, and e-commerce operations.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen.
• Proven experience in retail strategy, expansion, and global market development.
• Strong supply chain and inventory management knowledge.
• Excellent customer experience and luxury service expertise.
• Strong data analytics and retail intelligence capabilities.
• Strategic leadership and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong change management, negotiation, and partnership development capabilities.
• Demonstrated ability to drive innovation and digital transformation.