Mumbai: Leading social e-commerce player DealShare, today announced the appointment of Mr L R Shivakumar as the Chief Merchandising Officer (CMO). Mr. Shivakumar joins DealShare from Spencers Retail Ltd., where he was the Chief Merchandising Officer and Head of E-commerce. Prior to his stint with Spencers, he spent almost a decade at Walmart where he headed the buying and merchandising function of the Food and FMCG Verticals.
Having worked with organizations like Walmart India, Olam International, and Godrej & Boyce apart from Spencers Retail, Mr.Shivakumar brings with him almost three decades of experience in Retail/Wholesale merchandising e-commerce, and Agri-commodities sourcing & trading verticals. He is an alumnus of Bharathiar University, Coimbatore.
In his new role, Shivakumar will be driving the company’s strategy and playing a major role to strengthen its presence in the rapidly expanding social-commerce space. He will be steering the vision of the company’s merchandise strategy and creating a platform for indigenous local brands, private labels, direct from farms/mills, and promoting make in India.
Speaking about the appointment, Vineet Rao, Founder & CEO, DealShare said, “We are happy to welcome Shivakumar to DealShare as our Chief Merchandising Officer. His experience spanning three decades in merchandising will play a critical role in the expansion of DealShare’s product assortment as well as building a powerful private label portfolio. Our vision from the first day has been to improve the affordability of India’s middle and lower-income groups, by offering them high-quality products at factory and farm prices. Shivakumar will play a strategic role in contributing to this vision by enabling DealShare to become the largest platform in the country for essential goods.”
DealShare has achieved magnanimous growth since its inception. In fact, the brand has recorded 10X growth just in the last 12 months. With a presence in 60+ cities and with the plans to expand their presence pan India the company has been aggressively adding senior leaders from the industry to its management team. They are also planning to add more firepower in their leadership across technology, marketing, merchandising, finance, human resources, and operations.
Sharing his excitement about the role, Shivakumar, Chief Merchandising Officer, DealShare, said, “It is always exciting to be a part of an organization that is value-driven. DealShare has created a sweet spot for itself by taking online buying to the masses especially the middle and lower-income population in India. They have truly redefined the way Indian consumers shop. I am looking forward to being part of this journey and contributing to offering great prices for our consumers & increasing distribution reach for our supplier partners on their product range.”
DealShare has raised a sum of $183 million and is preparing to invest heavily in technology, scaling up its operations and strengthening its business. The new appointment will play a crucial role in fulfilling the company’s vision and growth journey to become the country’s leading social ecommerce player, catering to middle and lower-income families.
