Why Walmart purchased Flipkart? How will this impact the global eCommerce industry?
The preceding month will be remembered as a gamechanger in the global eCommerce industry. World’s largest retail company purchased majority shares of India’s largest online store. Yes, we are here talking about Walmart and Flipkart.
Indian market isn’t new for Walmart, as it has been present here as a B2B wholesaler. The reason behind being confined to only B2B market is the FDI regulations, which restrict the global giant to do B2C business in India.
The Indian eCommerce market
The exponentially growing Indian online retail market has shown tremendous rise by taking a jump from the US $16.07 Billion in 2016 to the US $20.06 Billion in 2017. Not only this, the same report shares the market to reach the US $25.07 Billion by the end of the year 2018.
Walmart vs Amazon
Being called as world’s biggest eCommerce deal. The Walmart and Flipkart deal has earned the attention of industry experts across the globe. Taking its online retail battle with Amazon a step ahead, the retail giant acquired 77% of Flipkart’s stake and seems to be determined to make some major impact on India online retail market.
While Amazon is working on expanding its physical retail stores, Walmart is putting efforts to expand its online market. According to recent news, the Walmart officials expect the online sales to grow by 40% this year. Need to be mentioned that the eCommerce sales for Walmart grew by 44% in the preceding year, touching the mark of US $11.5 billion.
Ok, so this is how the competition is flourishing; Walmart expanding online presence, while Amazon focusing on physical outlets.
So here’s what we learned
- Amazon and Flipkart were the two major online sellers in the Indian market.
- Amazon and Walmart being global rivals, Walmart has been trying to compete with it in the Indian market.
- While Amazon is expanding its physical stores, Walmart wanted to grow its online market.
- Well, Flipkart too required an offline presence and the togetherness can help both to build a wider market.
What’s for other eCommerce stores?
Undoubtedly, the online market in India is growing at a tremendous speed. Amidst this new disruption, the prevailing marketplaces and those planning or have an online store are looking ahead for the storm that’s to come.
Well, the only approach you need to keep here is to ensure;
- A user-friendly online store
- Better customer support
- Innovative and creative approach
- Improvised digital marketing strategies
- Prompt shipping
Remember, every business has its distinct identity and a dedicated target audience base. You just need to focus on the same and build your market strategy accordingly to ensure that the Walmart-Flipkart alliance doesn’t impact harshly on your business.
The Indian Market and Walmart dream
With controlling stake in its hand, Walmart indeed has all the dices in its hand, and a plan to punch-in the numbers that it wants to. However, whether the steps work in favor or not is yet to be seen. Experts believe that the initial step of retail giant could be to build a chain of offline stores across the nation and boost the online buying experience.
The Indian market has been gaining the eyeballs of global participants since quite some time. Be it make in India or make for India, both of them are relishing their part of the attention.
Impact on Indian and Global eCommerce
Amazon launched its first cashier-free offline store on December 5, 2016, and going with the news, they are planning to launch over 2000 stores in the coming ten years. Amazon already has a remarkable online presence and hence its focus on offline stores is quite reasonable.
On the other side, Walmart has vice versa condition. With it buying majority stakes of Flipkart, industry experts are speculating a massive overhaul in coming months. However, the growth won’t just be confined to the web world but will also be impacting the offline retail store chains, especially in India.
A concluding note for this new beginning
With Walmart buying majority stakes of India’s leading online store Flipkart, we might not speculate its impact on global eCommerce for now, but yes, we can undoubtedly expect to have a better user experience. Having said this, you can expect to see the phrase, “Monkey gets the benefit of the catfight” (Pun intended).
With this, we intend to symbolically bring the attention of consumers towards better online experience. This can be in form of user experience or shipping. You never know the new store can introduce something to compete with prevailing Amazon Prime membership.
As of now making predictions would be little early. In fact, market experts and analysts are eagerly waiting for the first action from Walmart. Stay tuned and we’ll keep you updated with the coming changes.
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