Flipkart boosts Walmart's international sales growth, and India's e-commerce market has unlimited potential

US retail giant Walmart released its fourth-quarter earnings report on Thursday, which showed that Walmart's international sales grew 5.5% to $34.9 billion in the fourth quarter , while total revenue grew 7.3% to a record $152.1 billion. For the full year, Walmart's revenue grew 6.7% to $559.2 billion.

Walmart's main international markets include India, China, Japan, Mexico, Chile, Africa, Canada, etc. In 2020, the Indian e-commerce company Flipkiart performed outstandingly, making the Indian market the main driving force for Walmart's international sales growth. In addition, the Mexican and Canadian markets also grew significantly.

Flipkart was founded in 2007 and started out by selling books. To date, the platform's business categories have expanded to include clothing, fashion, home furnishings, care and other fields, with a very rich variety. Among them, smartphones are the platform's best-selling product category.

In order to enter the Indian market, in 2018, Walmart invested US$16 billion to acquire Flipkart, and eventually became Flipkart's largest shareholder with a 77% stake. Currently, Flipkart has become India's largest e-commerce platform with more than 100 million users. Its market valuation has reached US$24.9 billion, making it Amazon's strongest competitor in India.

Although Flipkart's GMV growth was affected to a certain extent by the 53-day shutdown in the first half of the year (epidemic lockdown) , Flipkart's business rebounded in the second half of the year and exited the fourth quarter with strong momentum . Overall, Flipkart still achieved GMV growth in 2020 .

"The shape of our portfolio is changing as we focus our resources on those markets where we see the greatest opportunity to achieve long-term and sustainable profitable growth," said Judith McKenna, president and CEO of Walmart International .

This means that India will become one of Walmart's key focus markets. In the future, Walmart will invest more funds and support in Flipkart to help Flipkart win more buyers and sellers, thereby obtaining more profits.

For sellers engaged in cross-border e-commerce, the choice of platform is crucial. The current Indian market has unlimited prospects, but sellers must also pay special attention to the screening of platforms and choose suitable development platforms. Flipkart has a good development trend, and sellers can pay more attention to it. In recent years, India's social e-commerce has also developed rapidly, and sellers can also pay more attention to it.

Cross-border e-commerce

E-commerce market

E-commerce platform