Walmart is reportedly in talks with India’s leading e-commerce giant Flipkart to purchase a minority stake. According to Economic Times, Walmart is in the advanced stage of the discussions with Flipkart to acquire a 15 percent minority stake. However, it can go up to 20 percent based on the terms and conditions. The financial daily has not confirmed the source from where they obtained the details.
Flipkart has been struggling to gain a ground in India even though the e-commerce retailer has pumped in fundings from various investors. The marketplace is providing huge discounts regularly to attract customers. According to Industry analysts, the majority of customers have migrated to Amazon from Flipkart because of excellent delivery, returns, and customer service.
The return process followed by Amazon is top class and this is the sole reason for the migration of customers. Meanwhile, Flipkart has been able to partially retain customers by conducting Big Billion Days in October. If the rumors are to be believed, the deal with Walmart will finalize by the end of March 2018 since the company would have to take into confidence the existing investors.
Responding to media queries, Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove disclosed that the company doesn’t comment on rumors and speculation. However, Flipkart officials haven’t responded yet to the queries posted by the Economic Times. Previously, Reuters revealed that US-based shopping giant is looking forward to invest between $750 million and $1 billion in Flipkart.
If you look at the sales and marketing tactics, both Flipkart and Amazon have been selling exclusive products of various companies. Amazon has been involved in the sales of OnePlus, while Flipkart has been selling out products manufactured by Honor, Vu and less-known brand such as CloudWalker TV. Moreover, Amazon has been selling their own private label products under the brand name Solimo. It remains to be seen as to whether Walmart will indeed acquire a stake in Flipkart.
