Retail industry veteran Saurabh Bansal has announced that he is starting a new role as Chief Merchandising Officer at Carrefour India, where he will play a pivotal role in setting up Carrefour’s India business from scratch. Based in Gurugram, Haryana, Saurabh steps into this leadership mandate with a wealth of experience across some of India’s most dynamic retail and e-commerce organisations.
Before joining Carrefour, Saurabh served as Executive Director and Chief Merchandising Officer at Spencer’s Retail, where he was part of the senior leadership and management committee. He was instrumental in leading category management and merchandising across key segments including FMCG, Staples, Fresh, Home & General Merchandise, Electronics, and Fashion. Under his leadership, Spencer’s achieved EBITDA profitability for the first time in 22 quarters, marking a major financial turnaround. He also drove online and offline merchandising, pricing strategy, analytics, supply chain planning, and space management, leading a team of over 100 professionals.
Prior to Spencer’s, Saurabh held leadership roles at Snapdeal, where he served as Chief Merchandising Officer & Business Head, driving the company toward EBITDA breakeven. He led category management, private labels, seller strategy, analytics, and overall business operations across Fashion, Home, FMCG, Beauty, and Electronics. During his tenure, he successfully launched and scaled multiple private brands, strengthened the seller ecosystem, and refined the company’s pricing and merchandising strategies.
Saurabh’s extensive retail experience also includes a transformative tenure at Walmart India, where he rose through multiple leadership roles — from Vice President of Pricing Strategy, Merchandise Planning, and Cost Analytics to Senior Vice President of Merchandising. At Walmart, he built and scaled private brands across diverse categories, led pricing and cost analytics functions, and established the company’s first “Cost Analytics” framework, driving significant savings to the bottom line. His performance earned him special recognition at Walmart’s prestigious YBM event for excellence in cost optimisation and strategic leadership.
Earlier in his career, he served as SVP & Head of Buying & Merchandising at Lenskart.com, where he managed the company’s P&L and led procurement, planning, inventory management, and category strategy across both online and offline channels — contributing to Lenskart’s mission of transforming India’s eyewear landscape.
With a proven track record of building high-performing merchandising organisations, driving profitability, and leading large-scale retail transformations, Saurabh Bansal’s appointment marks a major milestone as Carrefour re-enters the Indian market. His leadership is expected to play a central role in shaping the retailer’s India strategy, category mix, sourcing ecosystem, and customer experience from the ground up.
As Carrefour India prepares for its highly anticipated launch, Saurabh’s vast experience across global retail formats, omnichannel operations, and private label strategy positions him perfectly to steer the brand toward sustainable success in one of the world’s most competitive retail markets.
