India’s e-commerce landscape has quickly become dominated by quick comen where the market is now marked at 20 percent of the market and growing at an annual rate of 50 percent, CEO of Walmart International, Kathryn McLay said. And McLay said at the Bernstein Annual Strategic Decisions Conference that Walmart’s strategy is focused on growing the quick commerce space led by Flipkart in India.
In order to underpin this expansion, Flipkart’s local Indian marketplace arm received a significant cash injection of ₹2,225 crore (around $260 million) from its Singapore parent, the scenarios are said. The funds will be used to scale Flipkart’s quick commerce vertical, Minutes, a dumpling of establishments referred to as dark stores that aim to reach 800 by the end of 2025. Flipkart has crossed halfway in this target already, as of early this month.
The Indian e commerce ventures like Flipkart and fashion portal Myntra, are focus on market share and growth, not profitability at this point, McLay said. Recently, Myntra took its services to Singapore and also took in cash of ₹1,062.5 crore (approximately $124 million) from its parent entity. “We are not so focused on profitability that we will ever trade off market share or the ability for growth in the future,” McLay said.
Meanwhile, she also pointed out that it doesn’t matter if Flipkart’s road to profitability is not linear; Walmart has been successful elsewhere with such models, both for the business as a whole and within channels like quick commerce.
Changing consumer behaviors in India have driven increasing demand for quicker delivery times and convenience which are behind the rapid growth of quick commerce in the country. Walmart is making strategic investments with an eye to capitalize on the evolving e commerce sector in India, to capture a larger share of this evolving sector by focusing on this segment.
With growth in the quick commerce segment, there is much for retailers to be excited and cautious about. Walmart shows at this point that it is laying emphasis on growing the business and its presence in Indian market rather focusing on short period profits.
