Walmart wants to clip Amazon’s wings in India; may partner with Flipkart to take on the common rival

Walmart is likely to partner with India’s e-commerce giant Flipkart to take on Amazon India, which is spreading its wings in India and pumping in money in the country like never before.

It is likely Walmart will pick up a minority stake in Flipkart and both of them will take on the common rival.

As per reports, discussions have happened between the two parties. ET reported Walmart is likely to discuss a strategic deal with Flipkart.

This will be similar to the deal that Walmart did with JD.com in China as it bought a 5% stake in the second-largest Chinese ecommerce marketplace for about $1.5 billion.

However, the price deal has not been disclosed.

"As a policy, we don't comment on speculative reports. It is our policy not to comment on rumours or speculations," a Walmart spokesperson told ET.

If the deal goes through, Flipkart will be able to use Walmart's global supply chain and increase its efficiency in procurement, product assortment and further improve its technology platform.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s India story is becoming interesting day-by-day and is challenging Flipkart's leadership position in India and threatening Walmart's supremacy in the US.

Amazon and Walmart are rivals in the US and Amazon has grown leaps and bounds in past few years.

In 2015, Amazon's revenue grew by 20% to $107 billion ($99 billion from online sales, the rest from Amazon Web Services) while Walmart's sales declined by 0.7% to $482 billion. In the second quarter of fiscal 2017, Walmart's revenues rose 0.5% to $120.9 billion while Amazon reported sales of $30.40 billion, up 31.1% from the year-ago quarter.

Amazon is also trying to bridge the gap with Flipkart, which now has over 100 million registered users.

Flipkart, which is backed by Tiger Global, Qatar Investment Authority, DST Global, GIC, Naspers, Accel Partners, Morgan Stanley and T Rowe Price, was valued at $11.55 billion in August.

Flipkart also owns Myntra and Jabong.