India is likely to surpass China and emerge as the largest international market for Walmart this year, a top company executive said. The Bentonville – headquartered retail giant is majority owner of both ecommerce marketplace Flipkart as well as payment app PhonePe.
Addressing the company’s annual institutional investors call, Walmart CFO John David Rainey said, "I believe India is going to be the largest market in the world this year, surpassing China. It's a really promising opportunity in the future."
Rainey, who is also the executive vice president of Walmart Inc termed Flipkart and PhonePe as market leaders and said both companies have huge opportunities to tap going forward.
He was responding to an analyst’s query about the company's international markets during the call late on Tuesday evening.
Earlier in February, while speaking at the company’s quarterly earnings call Rainey had said that Walmart’s International operations had taken a hit due to the impact of PhonePe’s separation from Flipkart.
The separation, which became final in December 2022, was preceded by the shift of PhonePe’s registered legal entity from Singapore to India. This shift also led to Walmart footing a nearly $1 billion tax bill levied by the Indian government.
During the earning call in February, Rainey had also noted improvement in Flipkart’s positive contribution margin while pointing out that Walmart has taken note of the Indian ecommerce giant’s progress.
A positive contribution margin means the product being sold at a certain price is able to make contributions or generate money after deduction of fixed costs.
Flipkart has also been playing a key role in boosting Walmart’s international sales through its flagship BigBillionDays sale as well as its advertisement business here.
Walmart China
Rainey’s comments gain significance as Walmart has been operating in China since 1996. It operates the membership store model under Sam's Club stores in China along with its Hypermarkets, which compete with local rivals for faster delivery through an omni-channel model.
Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/india-likely-to-surpass-china-as-largest-international-market-this-year-walmart-cfo/articleshow/98494604.cms