Walmart and Flipkart both hit the mark with e-commerce – a 97% jump in US while India sales exceed pre-COVID levels

• Walmart’s profits jumped 8.5% to $6.1 billion, while its revenue grew by 5.6% to $137.7 billion.
• Its international sales fell by 6.8% to $27.2 billion, because of the lockdown and subsequent market closures, including Flipkart’s halted operations.
• Its earnings report said that since reopening GMV (Gross Merchandising Volume) at Flipkart has exceeded pre-COVID-19 levels.

Global retail giant Walmart has profited off the coronavirus pandemic, with its essentials business and its e-commerce finally taking off. Walmart’s profits jumped 8.5% to $6.1 billion, while its revenue grew by 5.6% to $137.7 billion, while its same-store sales grew by 9.3% in the quarter. The company also said that its e-commerce sales in the US grew 97% with robust results across all channels.

Even though its international sales fell by 6.8% to $27.2 billion, because of the lockdown and subsequent market closures, including Flipkart’s halted operations during the April-June quarter, the company has reasons to remain optimistic.

Flipkart post lockdown sales beat pre-COVID levels

Walmart’s bet on Flipkart seems to be taking off well. In its earnings report, Walmart has said that since the reopening of lockdown, GMV (Gross Merchandising Volume) at Flipkart has exceeded pre-COVID-19 levels.

In July, Flipkart had said that it had surpassed 1.5 billion visits per month and reported 45% growth in monthly active customers and 30% growth in transactions per customer for FY20.

Earlier in July, Walmart invested $1.2 billion in Flipkart in an equity round, two years after it bought a 77% stake in the Indian retail giant for $16 billion. The round valued Flipkart at $24.9 billion.

And days after the funding announcement, Flipkart also said that it was acquiring Walmart India’s business and announced the launch of Flipkart Wholesale. With this, the 28 Walmart’s Best Price stores in India will now come under Flipkart.

Competition is brewing in India

Walmart is doubling down on its bets on Flipkart at a time when India’s retail tech ecosystem is witnessing a surge in interest from the tech giants – with Facebook’s $5.7 billion bet on Jio and Google’s talks of investing $4 billion in Jio Platforms. Both of these investments will boost JioMart, the e-commerce debut of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani. Meanwhile, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos promised a new $1 billion investment in India.

Reports also said that during the sale events in July, Amazon beat Flipkart at one of its bestsellers – smartphones – for the first time.

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