Top 25 eCommerce leaders 2022: Ankit Porwal

A well-known face within marketing circles, Ankit Porwal (pictured) has a proven track record at one of the world’s leading beauty companies, L’Oréal.

Porwal has been at L’Oréal for more than a decade now, prior to which he was at Colgate-Palmolive for over six years, where he cemented his status as an industry heavyweight. He joined Colgate in 2006 as senior area sales manager, after which he was promoted to customer marketing manager for the pharmacy channel, before eventually taking the senior brand manager role in India and Thailand, before joining L’Oréal India in 2012.

At L’Oréal, he has been responsible for building an omni-channel go-to market strategy, and accelerating its eCommerce. He has also led a cross-functional team of sales, marketing, digital media, finance and supply chain operations. His current mandate is to build a future-ready beauty tech organisation and drive digital transformation.

Focused on building a winning team for the dynamic regions of Southeast Asia, India, the Pacific, and the Middle East, Porwal has built his regional expertise through roles across South Asia in marketing, innovation, eCommerce and digital transformation projects. His passion for marketing has driven his deep understanding for digital entrepreneurship.

According to him, one of the brand’s big wins last year was to draw consumers back to the beauty category by creating relevant marketing campaigns such as the cross-platform launch of L’Oréal Paris Glycolic Bright, Beauty Passport, and the acceleration of Socom with the first regional campaign “Brighter Skin, Brighter Days”.

“This was possible thanks to our partnerships with key eCommerce platforms such as Shopee, Lazada and TikTok,” he said.

“But the most important thing for me is the culture of cross-functional collaboration and agility which is our mantra of success.”

One campaign he holds much pride in was the launch of the new L’Oréal Paris Glycolic Bright range where jointly with the brand marketing team, a 360-degree activation plan was crafted to launch across ASEAN markets with initiatives across the full funnel. This resulted in it being the number one skin care range of the year for the brand.

Sustaining the buzz post-launch was critical, and Porwal’s team left no stone unturned. When asked on his views of eCommerce and the future, he said: “Overall, I am very optimistic about the future of eCommerce. This optimism comes given consumers are getting comfortable with the use of online shopping and online payments."

“Also, with technology advancing at a rapid pace, online shopping itself is transforming. Today, more and more online shoppers use immersive shopping tools like virtual try-ons and personalisation that helps minimise friction associated with online shopping.”