e-commerce
Snapdeal to invest $300 million in SCM, names Hardeep Singh as head infrastructure
MUMBAI: Snapdeal is planning to invest $300 million this year to strengthen its Supply Chain Management (SCM), which is a key function of any e-commerce company. Additionally, the company has strengthened its SCM team with the appointment of Hardeep Singh as head – infrastructure.
In his new role, he will help craft strategies for making Snapdeal’s Supply Chain systems future ready. This includes the entire gamut of network design, infrastructure and special projects.
Singh comes with over 21 years of experience in various aspects of supply chain operations including – planning, warehouse management, driving process excellence, supply chain technology integration, end-to-end solutions design and implementation. Prior to his appointment at Snapdeal, he was at Bharti Retail as head – supply chain and infrastructure. During his stint at Bharti Retail and Bharti Walmart, Singh was responsible for driving the best-in-class strategies covering Supply Chain, IT and Real Estate.
Previously, he was the CEO at Inlogistics, the first private container train operator to run on Indian Railways network. In his two decades long career, Singh has also worked with organisations like Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints and Madura Fashion & Lifestyle.
Snapdeal entered into a strategic partnership with Gojavas earlier this year. In order to further customer experience on the platform, the companies together launched innovative delivery services like four hour delivery, card-on-delivery and 90 minutes reverse pickups. Snapdeal’s flagship service, Snapdeal Plus has seen success since its launch a year ago. Currently, 60 per cent of the orders are Snapdeal Plus fulfilled up from seven per cent in January 2015. The SCM team at Snapdeal is 1000+ people strong and has grown five times since December 2014.
Singh said, “Snapdeal has been consistently focused on delivering a superlative customer experience and the progress that the company has made in this regard is unprecedented. It is exciting to see a young company like Snapdeal launch innovative supply chain solutions and set new benchmarks in this space. I look forward to working with the dynamic team at Snapdeal.”
Snapdeal co-founder Rohit Bansal added, “Supply Chain Management and Logistics form the back bone of the ecommerce industry. Our aim is to create a delightful experience for our customers and as the customers evolve, we need to constantly innovate and develop newer solutions to service them better. Hardeep comes with many, many years of rich experience in diverse and complex aspects of SCM. He will help us lay out the road map for our future supply chain management systems.”
e-commerce
ONDC names Vibhor Jain MD and CEO; Rohit Lohia joins as CBO, Manoj Thakur as CTO
Leadership formalised as open commerce network sharpens focus on scale and user value
The Open Network for Digital Commerce has formalised Vibhor Jain as managing director and chief executive officer, cementing a leadership transition at India’s ambitious open commerce platform as it pushes for scale and relevance.
Jain, who had been serving as acting chief executive officer since April last year following the exit of Thampy Koshy, steps into the role with effect from 7th April , according to a report by The Economic Times. He previously served as chief operating officer at the government-backed network, which enables buyers and sellers to transact across applications through an open, interoperable system.
Setting out his strategy, Jain underscored the network’s differentiated architecture. “Going forward, we are concentrating on what open, interoperable infrastructure can uniquely enable, things that no single platform has the incentive or the architecture to do,” he said.
He added that the immediate priority is to widen ONDC’s impact across user cohorts often underserved by platform-led commerce. “My priority is to deepen the value ONDC creates for the people it exists to serve: kisaans, karigars, kiranas, gig workers, first-time investors, and daily commuters across India,” he said.
Jain also flagged leadership reinforcement within the organisation, noting that ONDC has “a strong and exciting leadership team in place”, with Rohit Lohia joining as chief business officer and Manoj Thakur as chief technology officer.
With over 18 years of experience spanning entrepreneurship and consulting, Jain brings a track record in technology-led, large-scale transformation programmes and internet businesses. At ONDC, he has been closely involved in shaping strategy and operations as the network seeks to move digital commerce away from platform-centric models towards an open network approach.
Before ONDC, Jain worked with JUMO, where he helped set up the fintech firm’s India operations, and led the India launch of Mobike, handling regulatory, policy and operational aspects of its market entry. Earlier, he co-founded Atlanta Healthcare, an air quality management company, and spent more than a decade in consulting roles at Andersen and EY, advising governments on public policy and technology-driven reforms, including work on the Aadhaar programme and tax systems.
The mandate is clear but the path is complex. As ONDC attempts to rewrite the rules of digital commerce, Jain now carries the burden of turning open architecture into mass adoption, in a market still dominated by platform power.
