As Director of Planning and Strategy at Fanatics, Nitin Natesh Kumar brings a rare combination of strategic oversight and operational experience in supply chain leadership. His work spans both large-scale corporations and fast-growing companies. Throughout his career, he has focused on integrating artificial intelligence and analytics into logistics systems to achieve measurable business outcomes.
Kumar’s experience includes key roles at Walmart, Wayfair, OnTrac, and Shopify. At Walmart, he developed the company’s NextDay delivery strategy, later expanding it into Walmart+, bringing same-day service coverage to 75% of U.S. households. That initiative supported the movement of 250 million packages annually and significantly improved transportation efficiency across more than 30 fulfillment centers. His work proved essential in maintaining reliable delivery service during the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring that millions of households across the United States continued to receive essential goods without disruption. By strengthening nationwide fulfillment and transportation resilience, Kumar’s strategies contributed directly to the reliability of U.S. e-commerce infrastructure during a period of national stress.
Scaling with Precision and Intelligence
Kumar’s approach emphasizes accuracy and adaptability. At Wayfair, he helped scale next-day delivery by a factor of ten and tripled the reach of two-day service through refined network design. During his time at OnTrac, he led a $100M+ strategic expansion plan that strengthened the company’s network capacity and operational resilience, enabling significant year-over-year growth in delivery volume and service performance improvements.
He also developed a forecasting model with a mean absolute percentage error of less than 5%. Combined with a restructured S&OP process, this work delivered significant annual cost savings in linehaul operations, highlighting his ability to translate data into practical results.
Lessons from Launching at Scale
One of Kumar’s most defining projects was the launch of Walmart NextDay in 2019. He prioritized precision over volume, designing fulfillment zones and assortments based on customer behavior. Instead of mimicking the scale of a larger competitor, he implemented ground-based transportation models, used zone-skipping techniques, and selected high-demand inventory to offer a service that was both cost-effective and fast.
This effort demonstrated that logistics strategies do not need to mirror those of industry giants to compete effectively. By balancing trade-offs and aligning with what customers value, Kumar delivered outcomes that met both financial and operational goals.
Connecting Strategy with Execution
A consistent focus throughout Kumar’s work is aligning high-level plans with results on the ground. He creates cohesion across operations, planning, and finance by establishing clear goals and shared data. His ability to unify these teams is rooted in his experience leading both strategic direction and hands-on execution.
Beyond day-to-day work, Kumar shares practical insights through articles in Supply Chain Management Review, IJSCM, SDC Exec, and All Things Supply Chain. He has addressed topics such as fulfillment center planning, AI applications in last-mile delivery, and the challenges faced by small and mid-sized businesses in logistics.
Planning for What Comes Next
Kumar brings the kind of systems-level thinking and practical execution that today’s logistics challenges demand.
Looking ahead, Kumar is committed to helping organizations build logistics systems that are not only efficient but also responsive to change. His vision extends beyond individual companies – he aims to strengthen the broader U.S. logistics ecosystem by advancing scalable, data-driven networks that support economic growth and supply chain resilience nationwide. His long-term goal is to support a broader range of companies in using technology to develop supply chain networks that are reliable, flexible, and aligned with long-term growth.
Source: The Architect of Smarter Supply Chains: Driving AI and Analytics in Logistics
