India, Mexico markets push Walmart international business grow 13% in Q2

US retail giant Walmart saw its operations in markets like India, China and Mexico push its international business growth by 13 per cent in the second quarter ended July 31, with e-commerce continuing to expand its share in the segment.

The Bentonville-based company saw its total revenue rising 2.4 per cent to USD 141.0 billion in the second quarter ended July 31, 2021. Its net sales stood at USD 139.8 billion, of which Walmart US accounted for USD 98.1 billion and Sam's Club was at USD 18.6 billion in the said quarter.

The revenue of Walmart International - which includes operations in markets like India, China, Japan, Africa, Canada, UK, Mexico, Canada and Chile - stood at USD 23 billion in the second quarter.

"International had a great quarter with strong sales and profit growth. Net sales grew nearly 13 per cent in constant currency including strength in India, Mexico and China," Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon said in post earnings call.

He added that the continued progress of the company's large and growing e-commerce business is encouraging.

"...e-commerce sales grew 86 per cent and penetration accelerated more than 700 basis points to nearly 19 per cent of constant currency sales, McMillon said.

Talking about Flipkart's performance, McMillon said the Indian e-commerce marketplace continues to drive strong growth in GMV (gross merchandise value) in line with its "high expectation".

"Our e-commerce marketplace in India, Flipkart continues to drive strong growth in GMV in line with our high expectations. This team has been busy," he said.

He added that the platform continues to see improving trends and monthly active customers and users.

The Bengaluru-based company has introduced Flipkart Camera, the first of its kind technology at scale for the Indian customers that allows viewing products in a physical environment, McMillon explained.

"It (Flipkart) has expanded the grocery business to 70 cities and launched a new platform called shops, to help reach the resellers' community," he said adding that the e-commerce company is also increasing the customers' stickiness with Flipkart Plus".

Flipkart Plus is a tiered-programme based on spend, that is helping drive higher repeat rates for the company, McMillon noted.

Customers in the programme transact more frequently and see lower churn than others, he added.

McMillon highlighted that the recent USD 3.6 billion funding in Flipkart - which saw participation from Walmart and other marquee investors valuing the company at USD 38 billion - has positioned the Flipkart group for future growth.

"They (Flipkart) also recently completed a new funding round which placed a value of the business USD 38 billion, significantly higher than the valuation, when we invested three years ago," he added.

McMillon further added: "There were large votes of confidence from a strong group of investors and we will put those dollars to work to deliver growth in key areas such as grocery, fashion and supply chain."

Walmart Inc owns a majority share in Flipkart. It had invested USD 16 billion in 2018 in the Bengaluru-based e-commerce platform.

The Bentonville-based company saw its total revenue rising 2.4 per cent to USD 141.0 billion in the second quarter.

Walmart's net sales in the US, which is its biggest market, was up 5.3 per cent to USD 98.2 billion in the reported quarter from USD 93.3 billion in the year-ago period.