Chief Operating Officer — Interim, Omnichannel Retail

The mandate

Peak demand created oversold inventory, late click-and-collect and a customer-care backlog because store and online systems issued different availability promises. The COO resigned after refund and cancellation costs were omitted from fulfilment reporting.

The interim must join within two weeks for twelve months through platform correction and the next peak season. Permanent search begins once promise accuracy stays above threshold for one quarter, with eight weeks of overlap.

Handover requires inventory accuracy above ninety-eight per cent, promise adherence above ninety-five per cent, cancellation below three per cent, fulfilment contribution positive in every Tier-1 cluster, and the successor leading one peak readiness exercise.

The COO may change fulfilment rules, capacity allocation and store operating routines within budget. Major platform contracts, store closures and customer remediation above ₹2 crore need board approval; Merchandising and Pricing retain range and price authority.

New brand acquisition, international launch and store-format redesign are excluded. The assignment repairs the operating promise across the existing Indian channels.

Why this seat is open

Peak failure exposed the absence of one owner for inventory promise through customer resolution. Executive departure leaves digital and store teams defending their local metrics. A temporary COO must unify end-to-end economics before permanent leadership takes the next growth cycle.

What you will own

• Establish one inventory-availability and customer-promise hierarchy across warehouses, stores and marketplaces.
• Decide order routing using stock confidence, labour, distance, cut-off, margin and customer commitment.
• Reconcile cancellation, refund, substitute, split shipment and care costs into fulfilment contribution.
• Redesign click-and-collect handoff, ageing and exception control at high-volume stores.
• Build cluster capacity plans and stress-test them against the next peak demand profile.
• Certify weekly promise accuracy from order-level events rather than channel averages.
• Transfer the operating model after the successor commands a full peak simulation.

Candidate qualifications

• More than twenty-two years in retail operations with executive accountability across stores and digital fulfilment.
• Recovered an omnichannel peak failure involving inventory, order routing and customer remediation.
• Deep knowledge of inventory accuracy, distributed order management, click-and-collect and fulfilment economics.
• Demonstrated improvement in promise adherence while reducing cancellation and hidden service cost.
• Ability to align store incentives with enterprise customer outcomes rather than local sales alone.
• Experience testing peak readiness across technology, physical capacity, labour and customer-care operations.

Non-negotiables

• Can be Mumbai-based within two weeks and travel among Tier-1 clusters.
• No current interest in last-mile or platform suppliers supporting the business.
• Prepared to reduce promised speed when inventory or capacity confidence is inadequate.
• Available for twelve months through the next peak and successor handover.

1. 49 words maximum. Confirm your earliest Mumbai start and capacity for Tier-1 cluster travel.
2. 49 words maximum. What peak cancellation rate did you inherit and sustain after recovery?
3. 49 words maximum. Which order-routing rule improved contribution without weakening customer promise?