Walmart to tap smaller cities in India with 50 stores in 5 yrs

Walmart, which has 20 stores in the country, is planning to open 50 more stores over the next five years, a senior company official said here today.
These stores will come up in tier-I and II cities and not the metros.
"We are planning to open 50 new stores within next five years and all the new stores will come up in tier-I and -II cities," Walmart India president and chief executive Krish Iyer said here on the sidelines of India Retail Forum.
The company has launched a B2B e-commerce model on a pilot basis at its stores in Lucknow and Hyderabad and it has plans to roll it out at the remaining 18 stores too.

"We have launched the portal for our B2B customers at Lucknow and Hyderabad and the response has been very good. We are learning more about the members, what they need, the challenges etc and are fine-tuning the operations accordingly.
"Overall, we are very enthused about the response and we propose to start rolling it out in other 18 stores very soon," Iyer said, adding the company is currently working on developing an app too.