Amazon’s Sameer Mandge joins GoKwik as Director of Products

Sameer will spearhead the Return to Origin (RTO) product strategy and innova.tion initiatives

GoKwik, a leading e-commerce enabler providing full stack solutions for e-commerce brands, has announced the appointment of Sameer Mandge as its Director of Products.

Sameer joins GoKwik from Amazon India where he helped the e-commerce giant solve problems related to returns of goods (RTO or return to origin in e-commerce parlance) and creating products to ensure smooth and seamless payments.

With over eight years of experience in product and engineering, Sameer helped Amazon India create seamless prepaid payment solutions for customers. He also helped the company launch and scale one of the industry-defining products that nudged customers to move away from cash-on-delivery (COD) to other online modes of payments. Other vital innovations that Sameer led included a customer-facing marketplace fee that changed customers' default payment method behaviour along with creating ML-driven promotions based on customer behaviour.

On joining GoKwik, Sameer Mandge said, "When I heard about GoKwik and the problem it was solving for the e-commerce players and digital brands, I instantly knew that I wanted to be a part of its journey. I fully believe in GoKwik's mission of enabling e-commerce in the country by democratising customer experience and intelligence. Helping solve for RTO for these e-commerce players while enabling higher growth will be critical to these brands’ success. GoKwik has already established a large market presence in a short period by developing a full suite of e-commerce enablement products that companies are using extensively. I am excited to lead the RTO product line within GoKwik, and provide deeper intelligence and experience to our brands."

RTO or (Return to Origin) remains a significant pain point for every other e-commerce player in the country or brands selling online. It occurs when an order placed by a customer returns to the warehouse for various reasons, including no address found, incorrect address filling, customer not at home for delivery, better deal elsewhere, low intent of customers etc. This probability is as high as 20% in online shopping in India. It can further go as high as 40% in the case of cash on delivery orders. COD still remains the most preferred mode of payment for customers, especially beyond tier 1 cities at 60-70% and adversely impacts the revenues and margins of e-commerce sellers.

Welcoming Sameer to the team, Chirag Taneja, co-Founder and CEO at GoKwik, said, "Solving RTO-related issues and helping online players boost their business is core at GoKwik besides improving the customer experience for most of the brands. I can't think of anyone but Sameer to have spearheaded this vertical and created some best-in-class RTO product suites at GoKwik by bringing in innovation and scalability. I am also positive that with Sameer’s vision and leadership, we will successfully be able to eradicate this complex problem at the source. Look forward to the amazing solutions we build together and contribute to revolutionising the e-commerce industry."

An Aerospace engineer from IIT Bombay and an MBA graduate from SPJIMR Mumbai, Sameer worked as an SDE (software development engineer) with Altair Engineering India earlier.