Walmart to boost Flipkart's e-play; plans 50 B2B stores across the country

For a little over two months, world’s largest retailer Walmart has been quietly preparing for a two-front battle. While the firm waits for final approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to call Flipkart a Walmart enterprise, it has been preparing and bolstering its backend for online play, both for its business-to-business (B2B), and for Flipkart’s foray into the grocery segment.

According to sources, Walmart plans to open 50 B2B stores across the country as well as provides logistics and material support to Flipkart, which will go hand in hand and preparations for the two have already begun.  

The company, which on Monday opened its second fulfilment centre as part of its pilot project, would from now on opt for a mix of walk-in as well as ‘dark stores’. The latter to help its B2B assisted e-commerce and e-commerce plans as well as provide logistics support for Flipkart.

“The company is piloting fulfilment centres in the country. The idea is to have warehouses, which would specifically cater to B2B e-commerce, assisted e-commerce and provide backend logistics and material support to Flipkart. This would be a force multiplier for Flipkart which is running pilot projects of its grocery segment,” the source said. Walmart, however, has not started working with Flipkart as it is still awaiting CCI clearance. 

The company, which has 21 stores in India, is likely to close the year with around 25 stores. The US retail giant has taken up around 2.3 million square feet in retail and warehousing space in the country, which might go up to three million square feet by the end of this year. 

From cold chain to its farm aggregation centre, Walmart would open up all doors for Flipkart so that it can get all the grocery as well as fresh produce it needs for its online play. “The company has an expertise in fresh produce and one of the largest cold chain as well as farm aggregation centres across the country. All these resources would be used in full force for Flipkart’s grocery vertical. It is preparing its cold chain network to get ready for a surge in demand, which would soon be generated from Flipkart,” the source added.

Awaiting CCI clearance, funds and expertise from Walmart, Flipkart has not been able to go ahead with its plans of getting into the grocery vertical and is still running pilots in select cities. The company was supposed to get experts from Walmart to understand the logistics behind grocery delivery but that has not happened as of now.

“Flipkart plans to launch rapid delivery (or next day delivery) as well as understand which of its products could be added to the list of items that could be effectively sold in the grocery segment. For this, Flipkart needs Walmart’s help,” said a Flipkart's senior executive.

Walmart India, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart Inc., on Monday announced the opening of its first B2B fulfilment centre at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. 

This is Walmart India’s second fulfilment centre in India after the first one opened in November 2017 at Bhiwandi in Mumbai. It owns and operates 21 Best Price Modern Wholesale stores in nine states across the country and has integrated omnichannel in all stores.