Nandita Sinha tightens grip on Flipkart Fashion, appoints Myntra’s Sharon Pais as business head

Sharon Pais, CBO, Myntra and Business Head, Flipkart Fashion

Three weeks after taking on additional duties to lead Flipkart Fashion, Myntra chief executive officer Nandita Sinha is rejigging the unit’s structure and bringing more employees under her fold. Sinha has roped in Sharon Pais, chief business officer (CBO) of Myntra, and given her additional responsibilities as the business head of Flipkart Fashion effective immediately, as per an internal mail seen by Moneycontrol.

Sinha in control 

The change comes after Moneycontrol first reported on August 2 that Sinha would be taking on a larger role at the Walmart-owned company and scale Flipkart Fashion alongside Myntra.

Both Sinha and Pais will continue to hold their posts at Myntra but also spend more time on Flipkart Fashion to grow the business that competes with Amazon, Ajio, Meesho, Nykaa Fashion and others.

Pais gets more powers

“Sharon (Pais) will spearhead the execution of Flipkart Fashion's strategy, in addition to her existing responsibilities at Myntra….With her proven track record in building businesses, I'm confident that she will be able to steer the strategic vision for Flipkart Fashion and further enhance its overall Customer Value Proposition (CVP),” Sinha said in an email to employees on August 20.

Pais, who started at Flipkart in 2013 and moved to Myntra in 2021, will continue to report to Sinha. As business head, Pais will manage more people – largely from the Flipkart Fashion team – and be the additional layer between Sinha and the rest of the employees.

Senior Flipkart Fashion employees will now report to Pais. To be sure, Flipkart Fashion and Myntra will continue to run as independently.

Padmakumar Pal, vice president (VP) of Apparels, and Rakesh Jallipally, VP of Spoyl, will report to Pais effective immediately. Similarly, Manish Sharma, senior director (SD), revenue and interim POC for non-apparel, and Pallavi Saxena, SD Central from Flipkart Fashion, will also report to Pais, Sinha’s email said.

Pal, Jallipally, Sharma and Saxena earlier reported to Arief Mohamad, the former head of Flipkart Fashion who quit after spending nine years at the company.

A Myntra spokesperson confirmed the interim developments to Moneycontrol. There is a possibility that the role evolves at a later point and there may be a new Business Head, according to a person in the know.

These changes come amid increased competition in India’s $16-17 billion e-lifestyle market where US-based Walmart, through Myntra and Flipkart Fashion, is currently the market leader with a 50 percent market share, according to several industry estimates.

While the two businesses are owned by Walmart, Flipkart Fashion caters to the mass market, while Myntra targets the premium base, which makes the jobs different from each other, Sinha told Moneycontrol in an interview on August 8. The goal is common: increasing market penetration and growing Walmart’s market share in India.

The opportunity to grow will come from both, an increase in the new customer group as well as a jump in the consumption cohort, as the same people transact more frequently. For that, Sinha is appointing a trusted hand like Pais who she has worked with before at Flipkart and Myntra.

Not only is Flipkart competing with the incumbents, it has to also prepare to take on giants making big moves. These include Chinese online retailer Shein, which is likely to make an India comeback via a joint venture with Reliance Retail.

Disclaimer: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.