Ever since Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan decided to step down, speculations are doing rounds in the market and the media circles that Walmart is behind the rejig at the top level of Myntra as it wants to have a better control over the fashion platform. The government's decision to introduce a new policy in the e-commerce sector has left many players feel the heat and it seems that after investing a huge amount of money to acquire Flipkart, Walmart is in no mood to take any chances.
Kris Lakshmikanth, CEO and founder of the executive search firm Head Hunters India Limited feels that after the implementation of the new e-commerce policy, the players are expected to see a drop in their business as they will not be able to offer the level of discounts which they were offering earlier. Moreover, fashion is a category wherein people, especially in India, want to get a first hand feel of things before buying the product. But the same people used to throng the e-commerce sites mainly due to the huge discounts they used to offer. "In case the level of discounts go down, there can be a further dip in that business category. I feel that people like Narayanan are very expensive resources for a company such as Flipkart especially, with a change in the e-commerce policy. Walmart has invested huge sums of money in India and they want to directly control things through their team members. As such, Narayanan was not getting along well with the Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy and hence was expected to quit sooner or later. I feel it will be a challenging time for this fashion platform in the near future to survive in the market,” remarked Lakshmikanth.
Similarly, experts such as Murthy B.S., CEO of Bengaluru-based firm LeadershipCapital, feel that though Walmart did not make immediate changes post their take over of Flipkart and Myntra, they are now actively making leadership changes as they want to bring in their own strategy in due course of time. “It is sometimes very difficult to bring in a long drawn strategy in the e-commerce space in India due to the sudden changes in policies and market dynamics. One can plan only for a few quarters. Initially, the market was in its nascent stage but now it is growing and the offline players have started feeling the heat of its growth and hence they have put pressure on the government to bring in a new policy in the e-commerce sector. Though fashion portals were able to catch the attention of scores of youngsters, many of the high ticket buyers still eluded them as garments above the range of Rs 10,000 or so are usually bought from the offline stores. I feel the new e-commerce policy though will surely affect the e-commerce players initially, the players are expected to go back to the drawing board and devise strategies to deal with the new norms successfully,” Murthy told THE WEEK.
Off late, there have also been media reports that post the exit of Narayanan, other high level exits or transfers from Flipkart are expected at Myntra. Some reports even state that Flipkart may do away with the fashion platform itself in the long run.
