Pepperfry appoints Abhimanyu Lal as chief product officer

Furniture and Home products online marketplace, Pepperfry.com has appointed Abhimanyu Lal as chief product officer. In this role, Lal will lead Product development at Pepperfry as the company seeks to amplify the innovation roadmap to develop leading-edge customer experiences and strengthen its position as an omni-channel powerhouse.

Ambareesh Murty, founder and CEO, Pepperfry, says in a press note, “It is great to have Lal with us on our Pepperfry journey. We are keen on harnessing his vast experience in online retail and product management to accelerate our product innovation roadmap to strengthen capabilities, drive simplicity and build for scale. I am confident he will help build experiences that consumers will love.”

Prior to joining Pepperfry, Lal was associated with KartRocket as chief business officer and was responsible for scaling the business and identifying avenues for expansion, in addition to driving the company’s profitability. He also donned the founder’s hat for his start-up venture Twyst.in in 2014.

Lal says, “I am looking forward to working with Ambareesh and team. In the last six years, Pepperfry has re-defined the way Indians shop for their homes. My key focus will be on scaling up innovative and immersive experiences like Augmented and Virtual reality for Pepperfry consumers.”

Lal is an e-commerce specialist with close to two decades of experience in e-commerce, start-ups, strategy consulting and product management. He brings along experience of the e-commerce landscape in India and expertise in building product-driven business strategies. Lal was associated with eBay India for eight years in various capacities including head of strategy, marketing and category management, among others.

Lal is an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus and an engineering undergraduate from Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology. He began his career in Business Consulting with Arthur Andersen and subsequently, with the Tata Strategic Management Group (TSMG) where he helped with business planning for the Telecom and DTH businesses.

In addition to Lal’s hire, Pepperfry has promoted vice president and business head, furniture vertical, Hussaine Kesury to the position of chief category officer. Kesury has been a part of Pepperfry since its initial days and has also led key initiatives and business projects for Pepperfry. In his new capacity, Kesury will be responsible for scaling Pepperfry’s house brands portfolio and growing the market for Pepperfry’s marketplace brands. He will also focus on bringing more product groups into the Pepperfry House Brands fold.