Tejesh Adavi is Head of Marketplace Strategy, Sales & Operations at Nutravita. He took part in NDA’s recent roundtable on marketplaces’ role in ecommerce and now picks his own hero in the ecommerce sector.
Who is your digital hero?
It is tough to select just one digital hero, as there have been several stars in the ecommerce space that are doing fantastic work, but if I had to pick one I would go with Steven Yang, the founder of Anker.
What has he done to win hero status in your eyes?
I have never been lucky enough to meet Steven, but the work that he has done as one of the original pioneers of the Amazon marketplace with his company Anker, has paved the way for many marketplace-native brands that have since followed in Anker’s footsteps.
Steven, left his job at Google in 2011, to start a consumer electronics brand to compete with the big names despite having little to no experience in the industry. Not only did he take a risk with the new venture, but he chose to take a risk by starting his brand on the Amazon marketplace, which at that time was still finding its footing as a viable direct to consumer sales channel for brands.
Hence, Steven became one of the early pioneers in a new space that has since seen astronomical growth.
How has his heroism helped drive digital?
Considering that Anker is not only one of the most popular consumer electronics brand on Amazon now, but the company is also one of the largest (if not the largest) sellers on Amazon worldwide, it is fair to say his risk paid off.
However, more than this, the success of Steven with Anker on the Amazon marketplace inspired the rise of a new generation of companies – Marketplace Natives. More and more start-ups are now realising that marketplaces present a genuine opportunity to create and build a successful brand.
These marketplace native founders, including the founders at Nutravita, are in turn inspiring many others, and as such helping the whole digital ecosystem and community grow.
What the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
As digital grows and comes further to the forefront of corporate strategy, we encounter new challenges that heroes need to step up to solve. One challenge that I feel passionate about is education & accessibility – the digital space is still relatively new and is still seen by many as this complex unknown that is inaccessible to the majority.
A lot of great work has been done already to educate non-digital natives, but due to the rate of growth, it is important that we as a community keep working to demystify the digital space through education & training and make it accessible to those that wish to participate and add value to the ecosystem.
Inclusivity leads to innovation.
What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?
It would be a stretch of the imagination to say that my achievements have been heroic, but I am proud of my work as a new account manager at Amazon UK where I worked on educating and training many non-digital natives on the Amazon marketplace.
My work involved working with several clients in the FMCG sector ranging from multi-million turnover corporations to entrepreneurs looking to establish themselves, a lot of whom were taking a risk in branching out to a space they knew little about at that time.
For me, knowing that I played a role in helping brands and sellers who are passionate about their products, reach and interact with customers all over the globe that may have otherwise never been able to encounter, is something that I am still proud of.
