Flipkart Appoints New Head For Myntra-Jabong’s Fashion, Lifestyle Units: Report

Flipkart has promoted Rishi Vasudev, the head of its fashion department, to also lead the lifestyle and fashion categories of Myntra-Jabong according to a media report. The appointment comes a week after the reports of Ananth Narayanan stepping down as the CEO of Myntra-Jabong came into light, following which the ecommerce company named Amar Nagaram as its new head.

Both Nagaram and Vasudev will report to Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, an ET report said citing two people familiar with the matter. A formal announcement is expected in the next 10 days or so.

Vasudev joined Flipkart around four years back and is currently senior vice president according to his LinkedIn profile.

Vasudev is now the third senior Flipkart employee to be given additional duties at Myntra-Jabong after Flipkart merged operations of the two online fashion retailers in 2018. The company has already moved Amar Nagaram to succeed Narayanan and brought in Ayyappan R to head category management at Myntra. Ayyappan was previously heading the mobile phone category at Flipkart.

Jabong and Myntra officially announced the integration of their functions including technology, marketing, category, revenue, finance, and creative teams in November 2018. At the time, Jabong CEO Ananth Narayanan was given the charge of the joint operations of the two companies.

Myntra-Jabong had also let go of about 250 employees in November 2018, according to news reports as a result of the merger. Jabong was acquired by Flipkart-owned Myntra in 2016 for $70 Mn (INR 499.45 Cr), beating rivals like Future Group, Snapdeal and Abof.

Executive Restructuring At Flipkart Post Walmart Deal

Since its $16 Bn takeover of Flipkart, Walmart has been restructuring the top management at the Indian ecommerce major. To begin with, the US-based retail giant brought in four of its executives to the team of Flipkart.

Emily McNeal who is the current Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) head at Walmart, was to join Flipkart as senior vice president and group chief financial officer. Other senior executives such as Walmart’s chief ethics and compliance officer, Daniel De La Garza was to join as vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer at Flipkart.

Further, Grant Coad who has been handling regulatory compliance at Walmart Canada was appointed as general counsel and Dawn Ptak from Walmart China as vice president and group controller on the Flipkart team.

The restructuring has also seen the shock exit of Flipkart group CEO Binny Bansal over allegations of “personal misconduct.” Sachin Bansal, the other cofounder, had exited the company soon after the Walmart deal.

In November while commenting on the story of layoffs at Myntra-Jabong, Flipkart had said in a statement: “Flipkart Group is deeply committed to the success of Myntra and Jabong as market-leading brands. The just-announced integration of the two brand’s back-office teams is a long-planned and one-off realignment that started since Myntra’s acquisition of Jabong in July 2016. We have no further restructuring plans at this time.”

However, with the news of Vasudev’s appointment, the company is clearly not fully finished with setting up a new team to establish dominance over the online fashion retail market, of which Flipkart, with its subsidiaries Myntra and Jabong, claim to hold a 70% share.

According to IBEF online retail sales in India are expected to grow by 31% to touch $32.7 Bn in 2018, led by Flipkart, Amazon India and Paytm Mall.

During 2018, electronics is currently the biggest contributor to online retail sales in India with a share of 48%, followed closely by apparel at 29%.