Flipkart Group on Thursday announced a major breaking deal with the launching of Flipkart Wholesale. This is after the acquisition of a 100 percent stake in Walmart India. The Walmart India Private Limited ran the Best Price cash-and-carry business outlets in the country.
The move is an outcome to leverage the strong wholesale market in India and safeguard Kirana stores and MSMEs (Micro, Mini, and Small Enterprises) throughout the country. The company is also planning to strengthen the grocery business in India which is seeing increasing competition.
When asked, Flipkart Group Cheif Executive Officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy shared his vision on the new acquisition with the e-commerce company. “With the launch of Flipkart Wholesale, we will now extend our capabilities across technology, logistics, and finance to small businesses across the country,” he said.
According to him, Flipkart Wholesale will be launched in August. Initially, the platform will exercise grocery and fashion categories and then will proceed into different channels of sales. Kalyan also highlighted the upcoming events that are planned beforehand to establish a strong groundwork for the future.
“Flipkart planning to support local trade growth of Kiranas and MSMEs,” says Adarsh Menon, Senior VP and Head, Walmart India
With the new acquisition, Flipkart plans to offer attractive incentives and offers that will allow the company to accommodate both existing and new customers. These services will also be supplemented with data-driven recommendations for stock selection, as per the discussions.
Looking at the system, the products will be delivered through the company’s logistical network. This will provide a greater efficiency within a pre-existing market delivery system. The company aims towards the supply chain infrastructure of Flipkart Group and want to reach a major portion of Kiranas and MSMEs.
According to the statistics, Best Price supports more than 15 lakh members in the country and the number is still growing strong. With this much amount of customer base, Flipkart wants to continue with the retailing model and get the best for their user base.
“Top Indian brands, local manufacturers, and sellers have partnered with Flipkart Wholesale to ensure the availability of an exhaustive range of products and merchandise for Kiranas and MSMEs,” the statement said.
As of now, the company will be headed under Adarsh Menon, a veteran at Flipkart. While Sameer Aggarwal, who is the Chief Executive Officer at Walmart India will continue with his tenure with the company to ensure a smooth transition. After this, he will move to another role within Walmart itself.
As for the employees, the Walmart India employees will integrate with the Flipkart Group. And the home office teams in separate states will join the respective offices next year. Until then, all 28 outlets of Walmart India’s Best Price will continue to function for the supply of goods and operations.
The new acquisition is a major competition to Reliance JioMart, Amazon Retail, Big Basket, and Grofers. All these platforms aim to deliver grocery shopping and staple food item delivery chain in India. While the lockdown is still ongoing, major e-commerce companies are taking huge interests in the small scale delivery chain management.
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