Walmart's mobile-commerce, social tech hub in Bangalore

Walmart, the world's largest retailer, said it was setting up a unit of @WalmartLabs, its social and mobile commerce technology hub, in Bangalore.

As part of its global eCommerce division, the Bangalore facility would create technologies and businesses in social and mobile commerce for shoppers across the world. The company also announced it would hire 100 developers to lead and own projects and bring new e-commerce, and social and mobile commerce offerings to the global market.

“Today, we are on the cusp of a new era in e-commerce, and it is driven by social networks and delivered to consumers over mobile devices,” said Anand Rajaraman, senior vice-president, Walmart Global eCommerce and co-founder, @WalmartLabs.

Rajaraman said @WalmartLabs India would be a strong and talent-dense base and would have developers who push the envelope to change the world of e-commerce.

With sales $419 billion in 2010-11, Walmart is the largest retailer in the world and employs 2.1 million associates worldwide. Over 200 million people visit Walmart stores across 28 countries every week.

Tesco, one of the top three global retailers, already has a support centre in Bangalore that provides technology solutions in the commercial, marketing, supply chain, space range and display verticals to the UK-based retailer's operations in Europe.