Daybreak Inside Samir Kumar’s plan to bring order to Amazon India’s chaos
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Aug 13, 2025 E-commerce in India is facing challenges, and Amazon is feeling the heat from competitors like Meesho and Flipkart. Samir Kumar, the new country manager, is focusing on Prime membership to boost profitability, as Prime users spend significantly more. Speed is also a priority, with the recent launch of Amazon Now aimed at quick commerce. Despite the tough landscape, innovative strategies are being implemented to regain market control.
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Profitability Through Prime Focus
- Samir Kumar has made profitability Amazon India's central objective and revived input-driven processes like pricing discipline and inventory planning.
- He is using Prime as the lever because Prime members spend nearly twice and drive over half of Amazon India's business.
Input-Driven Culture Returns
- Kumar is shifting Amazon India from an output-driven to an input-driven culture emphasizing unit economics and process clarity.
- This cultural move aims to make slow or loss-making initiatives either redesigned or shifted to other channels like Amazon Now.
Shifting Low-Margin SKUs To Now
- Managers described moving low-margin items to Amazon Now instead of subsidized shipping on the main marketplace.
- One example: items that cost 60 rupees to ship are being redirected to the Now marketplace to improve economics.