e-commerce

“We are customer obsessed, not competition obsessed”: Amit Agarwal

Published

11 years ago

August 26, 2014

Since its inception over 20 years ago in the United States, Amazon.com has been obsessed with a fervor to serve its consumer and being the ‘earth’s biggest bookstore’. It has grown from a ‘dot-com’ corporation into a king in the domain of internet retail. And now, its Indian arm under the leadership of Amit Agarwal, is looking at achieving the same landmark.

Describing his current role as ‘Bringing Earth’s Biggest Selection to India; building India’s most customer-centric company’ on Linkedin, the new role has countless firsts for Mumbai-born Agarwal, now an American citizen. He has never worked in India in a business-facing role and never headed country operations as well.

The IIT-Kanpur and Stanford alumnus has been with Amazon since 1999. He has worked in various departments in the company including technical advisor to CEO Jeff Bezos between 2007 and 2009, before heading the operations in India.

Born in 1974, Agarwal joined Amazon as a part of its technology team.

Just a year old and Amazon India has already become the biggest threat to the seven-year old Flipkart in the Indian e-retail market. With an action-packed first year, the global online retail giant is gearing up to play a dominant role in the $13 billion Indian e-commerce industry.

In an interview with Indiantelevision.com’s Pranati Deva, Amazon India VP & country manager Amit Agarwal discloses Amazon India’s journey in the Indian e-commerce space and plans for the future.

Excerpts…

What inspired you to finally start an arm in India? Flipkart started in 2007, why did you think 2013 was the right year to jump into the Indian e-commerce space?

We believe that we entered the India market at the right time. Indian e-commerce space is still in a very nascent stage with significant potential for innovation to improve customer experience. We believe that the growth is at an inflection point and there is tremendous opportunity.

We have received a fabulous response from both customers and sellers in the last 14 plus months of our India operations. We launched in India with two departments – Books and Movies & TV Shows – and in these 14 plus months, our total selection now stands at more than 17 million products across 30 departments and hundreds of categories. We have witnessed phenomenal selection growth across several categories and are already the largest store in 12 of the 30 departments that we have on amazon.in including Books, Music, Video Games, Toys, Home & Kitchen, Luggage and Backpacks, Fashion Jewellery, Beauty Products, Movies & TV shows, Men’s inner wear , Sports, Fitness & Outdoors and Pet Supplies.

What is your current strategy in India? And how will your strategy change if the e-commerce sector opens up to FDI?

Our strategy for amazon.in is the same as our global vision to be India’s most customer-centric company by giving customers more of what they want – low prices, vast selection, fast and reliable delivery, and a trusted and convenient experience – and provide sellers a world-class e-commerce platform. The execution of this strategy is local. If you look at the logistics infrastructure, Amazon has built one of the most sophisticated logistics infrastructures that has ever been built to serve sellers and customers

We start with the customer experience and work backwards from it. Building a great customer experience drives traffic; traffic attracts sellers; more sellers drive more selection and this further improves the customer experience.

We have always maintained that opening up this sector to FDI will be good for consumers and Indian businesses as it would allow us to partner with local manufacturers to source products not carried by other sellers in the marketplace, giving Indian consumers unique and wider choices at lower prices. Allowing FDI, also, positively impacts infrastructure development in the country.

The announcement for the $2 billion investment in Amazon India came in just days after Flipkart announced fundraising of $1 billion. Was the announcement strategically placed?

We are customer obsessed and not competition obsessed. We aspire to provide Earth’s biggest selection and the most trustworthy and convenient online shopping experience to our customers in India. And we have been investing aggressively right from the beginning.

Our rapid growth in a short time and the significant opportunity ahead of us makes us very comfortable in making this large additional investment. We are not surprised if our rapid growth and customer experience ambitions have increased investment elsewhere as well.

What areas will you mainly focus on now, after the investment?

We don’t talk about any of our future plans but essentially it will go towards growing our business and enhancing customer and seller experience.

Which categories contribute the most to your revenue?

Categories with the strongest growth are Books, Consumer Electronics, Shoes, Baby Products, and Watches.

To increase your demand in the Indian space, which brands have you associated with recently for their products?

We are witnessing that both brands and SMEs are willing and are excited to use the Amazon India marketplace to reach to consumers nationally. Brands and sellers see a lot of value in their association with us. We not only play a significant role in driving sales but also in building consumer awareness about products and educating them about the benefits of these offerings so that they are able to make smart purchase decisions.

Today several sellers and brands are keenly exploring possibilities of exclusive associations with us. For example Amazon India is the exclusive retail partner for Microsoft’s entire Interactive Entertainment Business portfolio which includes Xbox One, Xbox 360, Kinect, Xbox Live, Xbox Accessories and all Microsoft-published Xbox game titles. Similarly, Philips has made available its new Philips Disney Imaginative Lighting range for kids exclusively on www.amazon.in. In mobiles we have exclusive launch deals with Samsung for the Samsung Galaxy K Zoom, Karbonn, Lava, XOLO, OPPO mobiles, etc.

We are also the exclusive online partner for KitchenAid, a premium kitchen appliances brand from Whirlpool that launched in India in March, for Waterlily LA, a premium leather handbag brand headquartered in Los Angeles that made its India debut on Amazon.in as well as for many more. There are several such examples across the 30 departments that we, at present, have on Amazon.in. We are very excited to see this response from brands and sellers and this stands proof to the value that they see in associating with us.

What is Amazon India doing differently to stay ahead of the competition in India?

In terms of services – we were the first ones in India to introduce premium guaranteed delivery services including the ‘One-Day Delivery’ service for items fulfilled by Amazon. Within a short time we have been able to make available over 300,000 products for next day delivery across hundreds of pin codes in India. More than 60 per cent of our customer demand is already eligible for next-day shipping on products fulfilled by Amazon.

We are investing in making sellers successful; continually looking for ways to do the heavy lifting for them; and enabling them to sell more and make more money. We started with over 100 sellers and today this base has grown to more than 10,000 sellers.

We now have seven fulfilment centres in India with a total storage capacity of half million square feet. All FCs are aimed at meeting fulfilment needs of retailers and small and medium-sized businesses and to help them achieve nationwide scale.

We are the first ones in India to introduce customised, personalised and multi-lingual Amazon.in Gift Cards that enable customers to buy over 15 million products (excludes ebooks) from our marketplace. Customers can purchase the Amazon.in Gift Cards of any value starting from Rs 10 up to Rs 10,000. Available in nine Indian languages including Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali and Punjabi in more than 200 designs that celebrate various special and memorable occasions in a person’s life.

Indian Postal Services (IPS) is one of the prime carriers that Amazon India uses as a delivery channel Amazon uses the extensive IPS network to service over 19,000 pin-codes through 140,000 post-offices across all 35 states and union territories in India. Number of deliveries through India Post has increased from 800 (June 2013) to 35,000 (in July 2014)

For us it is always ‘Day 1’ and today we believe we have the right ingredients to entice and delight our customers with a trusted online shopping experience.

Learning points so far about the Indian consumer and the e-commerce market in India?

Our experience of working around the world has shown one thing, that customers around the world are similar. Customers around the world always want a vast selection at low prices and a convenient, reliable and trustworthy online shopping experience. Indian customers are no different. I am yet to come across a customer who will say that they want a smaller selection or higher prices. And we are focused on ensuring that we are able to deliver and raise the bar for online shopping in India.

What are your views about the Indian e-commerce industry and what are your expectations from the sector in the coming future?

Indian e-commerce space is still at a very nascent stage with significant potential for innovation to improve customer experience. The growth is at an inflection point. With increasing internet penetration, both broadband and smartphones, there is an interest and demand from mini metros and smaller towns across the country. We see as a tremendous opportunity and are very excited by it.

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e-commerce

Tulasi Mohan Padavala elevated to Associate Director at Blinkit

Published

7 days ago

January 31, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

Gurugram: Blinkit has elevated Tulasi Mohan Padavala to associate director, capping a three-year climb inside the quick-commerce firm and signalling confidence in an executive steeped in ecommerce, category management and on-ground sales execution.

Padavala shared the update publicly, saying he was “happy to share” the promotion, a succinct announcement that nevertheless marks a notable step up within one of India’s fastest-moving delivery platforms. The new role follows nearly three years at Blinkit, where he most recently served as senior category manager from February 2023 to January 2026, focusing on strategic sourcing and assortment planning.

The promotion places Padavala in Blinkit’s mid-to-senior leadership tier at a time when the company continues to expand its rapid-delivery footprint and sharpen category economics. His brief tenure as associate director began in January 2026, with responsibilities expected to span category growth, supplier strategy and cross-functional execution.

Before Blinkit, Padavala spent a short but intensive stint as global ecommerce manager at Wholsum Foods, the parent of Slurrp Farm and Millé, between November 2022 and February 2023. There he worked on digital marketplace expansion and online retail operations, adding a direct-to-consumer and international ecommerce layer to his résumé.

A longer stretch at Amazon shaped much of his cross-border commerce experience. As business development manager for Amazon’s India Global Selling programme from February 2021 to October 2022, Padavala helped Indian D2C brands enter the North American market. His remit ranged from seller recruitment and category revenue management to coordination with industry bodies, regulators and logistics partners. Key outcomes included launching more than 50 D2C consumable brands in the United States, driving a cumulative gross merchandise sales figure of $1m in FY21-22, tripling sales for participating brands during Prime Day through marketing and visibility levers, growing the monthly recurring revenue of more than 10 newly launched sellers from zero to an average $20,000 each, and negotiating ecommerce partnerships that reduced initial launch costs by 20 per cent.

Padavala’s earlier career was forged in the field rather than the dashboard. At Coffee Day Group, he spent close to five years across multiple sales leadership roles. As sales manager in the Greater Delhi Area from July 2019 to January 2021, he led vending-machine and consumables sales for small and medium enterprises with a team of more than 15 assistant and territory sales managers, managed over 2,000 clients, drove upselling and cross-selling, maintained channel partnerships and ensured timely collections. Prior to that, he served as area sales manager in Delhi between May 2018 and June 2019, handling south and east Delhi markets, and earlier in Hyderabad from April 2016 to May 2018, where he led Andhra Pradesh sales for the vending division, supervised service and logistics functions and managed a base of more than 600 machines with a four-member team.

His professional arc began with internships that combined analytics and process improvement. At Boehringer Ingelheim in 2015, Padavala analysed the impact of brand extension on the drug Pradaxa, identified key performance indicators through market research and assessed sales forecasts, recommendations that drew positive responses in pilot studies. Earlier, at Genpact in 2014, he automated manual sales-order backlog reporting using VBA and Excel, increasing efficiency by 800 per cent, and worked on benchmarking metrics within supply-chain planning processes.

From automating spreadsheets to scaling cross-border ecommerce and now steering quick-commerce categories, Padavala’s trajectory tracks the evolution of India’s retail economy itself. Blinkit’s bet is clear: blend data, discipline and delivery speed. The promotion formalises what his career already suggests. In the race for instant commerce, experience that moves from warehouse floors to global dashboards is no longer optional. It is the engine.

e-commerce

Bharatpe plays a super over as Rohit Sharma fronts T20 push

Published

7 days ago

January 31, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: When the stakes rise and seconds matter, even payments need a match-winning finish. That’s the cue for Bharatpe, which has rolled out Super Over, a nationwide campaign led by Indian cricket captain Rohit Sharma, timed neatly ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.

The campaign draws a straight line between the pulse of cricket and the pace of everyday digital payments. A new brand film taps into India’s emotional bond with the game, while positioning UPI as the quiet hero that keeps daily transactions ticking along at match speed.

As part of Super Over, users making payments via Bharatpe UPI can bag daily rewards ranging from match tickets and signed merchandise to a chance to watch a T20 World Cup fixture alongside Rohit Sharma himself. Both consumers and merchants are also assured Zillion Coins on every eligible transaction, adding a little extra sparkle to routine payments.

Behind the scenes, Bharatpe is also batting for safety. The platform is backed by Bharatpe Shield, a fraud-protection layer designed to offer enhanced security, comprehensive coverage and dedicated support aimed at helping users transact with greater confidence as digital payments scale up.

Announcing the campaign, Bharatpe head of marketing Shilpi Kapoor said Super Over mirrors the aspirations of everyday Indians, combining speed, security and instant rewards to make UPI transactions feel both reliable and rewarding.

The campaign will play out across digital platforms, social media and on-ground activations nationwide, staying live through the T20 World Cup season proof that in cricket, as in payments, timing is everything.

e-commerce

Ahead of budget 2026, KoinX highlights crypto tax disconnect

Published

1 week ago

January 30, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: As the Union Budget 2026 looms, India’s crypto tax regime is back in the spotlight, and not in a flattering way. A new report by KoinX suggests that for many investors, the taxman walked away with more cheer than their portfolios did.

According to India’s Crypto Tax Story 2025, nearly half of Indian crypto investors ended FY25 in the red. Yet many still paid taxes. The report draws on anonymised data from close to seven lakh Indian users and paints a picture of a system that taxes activity rather than outcomes.

At the heart of the debate is the 1 per cent tax deducted at source. While the levy has improved transaction reporting, KoinX argues it has also frozen capital by skimming every trade, profit or loss notwithstanding. The result is a growing dependence on refunds and a steady squeeze on liquidity.

In FY25 alone, total TDS collected across the crypto ecosystem stood at Rs 511.83 crore. KoinX users contributed Rs 130.16 crore of this amount, but their actual tax liability was only Rs 91.64 crore. That leaves an estimated Rs 38.52 crore locked up as excess deductions.

The burden is unevenly shared. Less than 5 per cent of traders accounted for 87 percent of total TDS collections. Thin margins mean even high volume traders often overpay upfront, while smaller investors feel the pinch in proportion.

KoinX founder and CEO Punit Agarwal said the solution is not scrapping TDS but resizing it. He advocates a uniform cut to 0.1 percent, arguing it would free trapped capital, reduce the drift to offshore platforms and keep compliance intact.

The bigger fault line, however, lies in capital gains taxation. The report shows a near perfect split in outcomes. Around 51 per cent of users posted net gains, while 49 percent booked net losses. Yet taxable gains ballooned to Rs 3,722 crore because losses cannot be set off.

As a result, investors who collectively lost Rs 1,178 crore still paid tax on Rs 180 crore of gains. In plain terms, many paid capital gains tax without any capital gains to show for it.

Agarwal calls this a break from first principles. Across asset classes, no net gain means no capital gains tax. Treating crypto differently, he warns, distorts behaviour and risks driving both traders and liquidity offshore.

As policymakers fine tune the Budget 2026 numbers, KoinX hopes its data offers a timely nudge. The message is simple. A tax system that moves with outcomes, not just volumes, could make crypto less taxing for everyone.