Back in 2013, when Amazon entered India, Flipkart and Snapdeal were at their primes, were raising billions in funds, and the US giant was busy consolidating the few categories it had entered the Indian market with.
Its 2017 now. Amazon has nudged past behind India’s (once?) startup ecosystem poster boys, the first unicorns — Flipkart and Snapdeal. In fact, so much so has been Amazon’s sheer dominance that both of them are struggling to even remain operational, and have found it extremely difficult to find investors.
All of this, came under the leadership of Amazon India’s head Amit Agarwal, who, in recognition of the growth that the company achieved under his leadership in India, has now been promoted as a Senior Vice President at the parent company.
Amit will continue to be the head of India and will lead all the operations in the country, for now. Earlier, Amit was a Vice President at the Amazon’s parent company, based in the United States. In April last year, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had promoted Amit Agarwal to his S team.
Commenting on this, Amazon India spokesperson said:
This (Agarwal’s promotion) indicates how excited Amazon is about the progress the company is making in India and the opportunity Amazon sees ahead.
Earlier, Amazon appointed Manish Tiwary, head of Unilever Plc in the Gulf region, as its second senior-most executive. It is said that he will be groomed for few months, and will take up the role of Amit Agarwal when he moves to a bigger role in the parent company.
After entering India in June 2013, the company raced past Snapdeal last year. It also moved ahead of Flipkart in terms of gross sales, However, Flipkart is in denial.
Notably, Amit Agarwal has been working at Amazon for more than 18 years. He shadowed Jeff Bezos for three years as his technical adviser, and has overseen Amazon’s expansion in India. For Amazon, India is the biggest market, outside its home market. Since the company lost battle in China, India is the prime focus for Amazon.
