By Vansh Jain and Keerat Kaur
Walmart Inc. and the Tata Group are reportedly in talks for a joint venture of up to USD 25 billion in Walmart’s ‘super app’. The super app aims to establish digital services with a broad range of offerings in the retail space like healthcare, food, grocery, financial and insurance services. It is expected to hit the Indian market in December or January and is likely to be launched as a joint venture between the Tata Group and Walmart. This will permit the app to benefit from the synergies between the e-commerce business of India’s salt to software conglomerate and Flipkart, whose significant stake is owned by Walmart.
An year ago, Flipkart acquired Walmart India and launched Flipkart Wholesale, another advanced digital market place for reshaping the kirana retail environment in the country. Flipkart Wholesale has announced ‘Big Festival Month’ from September 29 to October 31.
Amazon and Flipkart are conversing with various warehouse operators across the country to lease their space temporarily, expecting a bumper festive season as customers prefer to click and buy rather than crowding brick and mortar stores due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Both organizations expect their sales to outpace current fulfilment centers and are gradually looking for storage areas for the coming months. The e-commerce players usually take space on a temporary basis before festive seasons and leases are for around 4-8 months. The festive season generally contributes 40-45 percent of yearly business of white good makers. Financing for Amazon and Flipkart will act as a strength for e-commerce companies as they struggle for market share and face tough competition with JioMart which is currently operating in 200 cities.
Basically the competition in the E-commerce sphere is increasing rapidly and Amazon and Flipkart have locked horns trying to dominate the market. The sector is growing faster than ever and with the introduction of Jiomart and probably Tata’s new super app the competition is going to be stiffer than ever. The bar for benchmark growth has also risen. India’s e-commerce market is expected to grow to USD 95-100 billion by 2024.
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