Flipkart names Samardeep Subandh marketing chief

Flipkart has named Samardeep Subandh as its chief marketing officer in the latest top-level appointment at the online retailer.

Subandh, a former sales head at consumer goods company Marico, takes over a role that was until now overseen by Mukesh Bansal, the head of commerce platform at Flipkart.

The appointment comes almost two weeks after Flipkart hired Ram Papatla from rival Amazon India as the vice president of product management.

Subandh has 17 years of experience in the consumer goods sector. Before Marico, Sugandh worked at consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever where he helped grow several brands such as Vim, Comfort, Close Up, Domex, Surf, Rin and Sunlight.

An IIM Kolkata alumnus, Subandh will also lead social media communication at Flipkart, the company stated in a press release.

"His insights of the consumer behaviour and proven track record of building national brands will surely be a value addition at Flipkart," said Bansal.

Flipkart has been on a top-level recruitment spree. The latest hiring is a sign of the intense competition that is brewing among India's top e-tailers, to gain an edge in the highly competitive sector.

Flipkart recently made three senior-level appointments to strengthen its delivery, accounting technology and digital product capabilities. It appointed Amazon's Dan Rawson as head of customer logistics and supply chain ecosystems, Google's Ravi Byakod as director of engineering – accounting, and Microsoft's Anand Lakshminarayanan as head of product management for digital goods and services.

Besides, Punit Soni joined as chief product officer in March from Google and Peeyush Ranjan, another Google employee, joined as head of engineering.

Flipkart has also seen a number of senior-level exits recently. Chief people officer Mekin Maheshwari moved to an advisory role while Ravi Vora, who was CEO of Flipkart's Strategic Brands Group, exited the company in September. In August, the CEOs of Appiterate and AdIQuity, startups acquired by Flipkart earlier this year, moved on from the company. Prior to that, Amod Malviya, chief technology officer at Flipkart, stepped down to be a part of the company's advisory board.