Amazon India appoints Arun Sirdeshmukh fashion head

Amazon India has appointed Fashionara co-founder Arun Sirdeshmukh as the head of its fashion portfolio. Prior to striking out on his own as an entrepreneur with Fashionara, Sirdeshmukh was the CEO of Reliance Trends, the fashion and lifestyle business of Reliance Retail.

Online retail venture Fashionara has folded up after struggling amid dwindling business and cash crunch. Fashion has been one of the fastest growing categories in India for Amazon. In the first quarter of 2016, unit sales of fashion products soared 200 per cent over that in the previous year, while its fashion and lifestyle selection grew three times over the past six months to 15,000 local and global brands offering more than two million products.

Since the launch of the fashion category in September 2013, the fashion store has emerged as one of the top three stores on Amazon, both in terms of volume and value. Amazon is looking to expand its global market by dabbling in the fashion sector. Amazon also plans to release its own fashion line. This will make India the initial provider of Amazon’s first fashion label and the test pilot for pushing the scheme elsewhere in the future. Amazon India has an association with the Fashion Design Council of India.