Samir Kumar, Amazon’s Washington-based vice president of international consumer business, will take over as the e-commerce giant’s India country manager, a month after Manish Tiwary stepped down from the position.
The new position is in addition to his current responsibilities leading Amazon’s consumer business in the Middle East, South Africa and Turkey, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday.
Kumar joined Amazon in 1999 and was part of the original team that conceived and launched Amazon.in in 2013. Amazon said he is working closely with Tiwary on the transition and will head operations in India from October 1.
Also read: Did Amazon violate Indian competition laws? The suspense is growing
In August this year, Tiwary resigned from his position as Amazon’s country manager for India to pursue other opportunities, ending his eight-year association with the e-commerce giant.
Amazon India has reshuffled its leadership team with Saurabh Srivastava (categories), Harsh Goyal (daily essentials), Amit Nanda (marketplace) and Aastha Jain (growth initiatives) now reporting to Kumar. Kishore Thota (shopping experience, emerging markets) will report directly to Amit Agarwal, senior vice president, emerging markets.
Main Markets
Amazon India continues to face stiff competition from Walmart-owned Flipkart and Tier 2-focused Meesho in India’s growing e-commerce market, currently worth $70 billion and expected to grow to $325 billion by 2030, driven by rising internet penetration and smartphone users.
India has become a key market for Amazon, with investments in the country increasing over the past few years. In February, the US company invested about $100 million in Amazon Seller Services. Tiwari said last year that the tech giant had digitized more than 2 million small businesses in India in 2022 alone and was on track to achieve its goal of digitizing 10 million of them by 2025.
“India remains an important priority for Amazon, and I’m very excited about the opportunities ahead as we continue to transform lives and livelihoods. We have a strong local leadership team, and combined with Samir’s experience in emerging markets, I’m even more optimistic about our future plans to serve customers and grow our business in India,” Agarwal said.
Follow us On Social Media Google News and Twitter/X