Retail Manager at Samsung Electronics

About the Role

• The Head of Retail is accountable for turning Samsung’s global retail strategy into market-ready execution across East Africa Market (14 Markets). The role drives sell-out growth through localized retail strategies and programs, leads commercial performance and channel health, and runs the retail operations that put Samsung products in front of customers.
• The post holder is the main link between Samsung HQ and the country teams on all retail matters, and is responsible for the return on every retail investment made in the region.

Retail Strategy

• Obtain retail strategies from Samsung HQ and localize them for each market, adapting to market size, channel structure, competitive intensity and consumer behavior.
• Design market-specific strategies and programs that support the regional sell-out target, with quarterly and annual plans for each country.
• Track implementation of retail strategies across markets, and report progress, learnings and deviations to the leadership team and HQ.
• Lead the annual retail planning cycle, covering targets, channel priorities and investment envelopes.

Commercial Outcomes

• Own sell-out performance for Samsung products across the markets. Monitor weekly and monthly trends, and turn retail data into actionable insights.
• Coordinate with internal stakeholders and channel partners to align actions on sell-in, sell-out and promotions.
• Manage relationships with dealers, distributors and wholesalers, including performance reviews, business plans and escalations.
• Monitor dealer margins and channel economics across the chain, and recommend adjustments that keep the channel profitable and motivated.
• Conduct market sensing on competitor moves, pricing, new entrants and changing consumer trends, and feed these insights back into strategy.
• Run regular retail mapping exercises to size the universe of outlets, measure Samsung’s presence against competitors, and identify coverage gaps and growth opportunities.

Retail Operations

• Obtain and deploy the retail assets each market needs for product visibility (branded stands, displays, signage, demo units and shop-in-shops), and oversee their maintenance.
• Manage retail staffing in each market, both outsourced and in-house: headcount planning, standards, training, scheduling and performance.
• Manage retail agency contracts, including selection, scope of work, service-level agreements (SLAs), performance reviews and renewals.
• Cascade Samsung retail policies, standards and compliance requirements to markets and agencies, and provide guidance on applying them.
• Own overall retail reporting, including the monthly and quarterly retail dashboard for top management, and report on the performance of the retail function.
• Act as liaison between Country Managers and HQ. Understand market needs and secure the resources required from HQ.
• Lead retail execution for all product launches, including store readiness, staff training, stock positioning, launch events and day-one plans.
• Guide the allocation of retail investment and retail infrastructure budgets, and evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of each one.

KPI | Measure | Frequency

• Sell-out vs target-Units and value by market against plan -Weekly / monthly
• Market share and share of shelf-Share vs key competitors, by market - Monthly
• Retail coverage and opportunity gap-Active outlets vs total universe; white space closed-Quarterly
• Dealer and channel health-Margin compliance, dealer performance scorecard, stock days- Monthly
• Retail investment ROI-Incremental sales return per unit of investment by program-Quarterly
• Agency and staff performance-SLA attainment, staffing fill rate, audit scores-Monthly
• Launch execution-Day-one availability; launch sell-through vs plan-Per launch
• Retail asset compliance-Assets deployed vs plan; visibility audit compliance-Quarterly

Direct Reports to this Position

• Retail team members – (Outsourced)

Customers of this Position

• Internal: Country Managers, Marketing Manager, Product Manager, Key Account manager, Corporate marketing teams, Finance and Samsung HQ Retail teams.
• External: Distributors, wholesalers, dealers and key retail chains, retail agencies, outsourced staff, and Marketing agencies.

Qualifications and Experience required for this Role

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, Commerce or a related field. An MBA or equivalent is an advantage.
• At least 8 years’ experience in retail, channel or sales management, ideally in consumer electronics, FMCG or telecoms, including at least 3 years in a leadership role.
• Proven multi-market experience in Africa or other emerging markets, with a good understanding of East African retail channels, distributor networks and operator or retail structures.
• Track record of managing retail agencies, outsourced workforces and retail assets at scale.
• Strong financial acumen, including P&L ownership, margin management and investment ROI analysis.
• Strong data and analytics capability, comfortable working with sell-out data, dashboards and BI or spreadsheet tools.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to brief senior leadership and HQ.