Walmart Is Shopping for a Fight With Amazon

Amazon.com revealed a stunning statistic last month when it announced that its Prime service had hit more than 100 million subscribers worldwide.

Its largest American competitor, Walmart, may have just captured as many new customers in India alone.Walmart on Wednesday announced a $16 billion deal to purchase 77 percent of the Indian e-commerce service Flipkart as part of its strategy to capture a piece of a fast-growing and increasingly tech-savvy market. The Flipkart deal, one of the largest and riskiest in Walmart’s history, follows a pattern of purchases over the past 18 months that includes a men’s clothing brand and a delivery start-up.

The deals were driven, in large part, by the reality that Mr. Walton’s strategy needs an update for a digital shopping age dominated by another behemoth: Amazon.

“For Walmart, this is the only way left to enter the Indian market and they are paying a premium for the access,” said Satish Meena, a Forrester analyst based in New Delhi. “This will provide them around 54 million active online buyers and a company with 40 percent of the Indian online retail market.”

Walmart’s acquisition changes that dynamic. Now, the retailer can help launch Flipkart’s grocery services to compete with Amazon’s. And Walmart can give Flipkart a boost in its fashion and clothing category, especially for low-to mid-priced products.

Walmart is now spending billions as it seeks new overseas markets, tries to capture different demographics and bolsters its grocery offerings.In the process, Walmart has begun to create a global alliance of retailers and tech companies that have Amazon as their common rival. It has already teamed with Google for online shopping, while Microsoft will hold a stake in Flipkart alongside Walmart.
The related article: Amazon India,Alibaba and Walmart face-off in this burgeoning e-commerce market