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Business Standard
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Walmart bets on Flipkart to tap India's $1-trillion e-commerce market
Walmart Inc. is betting on India, Mexico, and China to drive the next phase of its international expansion, with a particular focus on scaling e-commerce and omnichannel capabilities in these fast-growing markets. These regions are strategic priorities within its global portfolio, according to Kathryn McLay, President and Chief Executive of Walmart International. The division oversees the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer's operations outside the US, including its global online platforms. McLay noted that India, home to 1.4 billion people, represents a major e-commerce opportunity. The country's internet economy is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2030, primarily fuelled by e-commerce. Yet online penetration remains low—just 9 per cent—highlighting significant headroom for growth. To tap into this opportunity, Walmart is continuing to invest in Flipkart, expanding both its core offerings and newer retail formats. 'We see huge opportunities in that market, and we have been growing the Flipkart business,' McLay said during a fireside chat with Bernstein analyst Zhihan Ma at the Bernstein 41st Annual Strategic Decisions Conference 2025 in the US on Wednesday. Walmart entered India in February 2018 through its $16-billion acquisition of Flipkart, which operates as a pure-play online third-party (3P) marketplace. Initially focused on bringing branded items to tier-II and tier-III cities—where consumers previously had to travel to tier-I cities to access products like Levi's—Flipkart concentrated on mobile phones, electronics, and apparel. These core categories have since achieved profitability. As the business has matured, Flipkart has broadened its assortment to meet evolving customer needs. In recent years, quick commerce—defined by delivery windows of 15 minutes or less—has become a dominant trend in India. To address this, Flipkart launched its 'Minutes' business to meet accelerated delivery expectations. The company has established 250 fulfilment centres to support this model, a major shift from its earlier one-to-two-day delivery promise. Today, some Flipkart orders arrive in as little as three minutes. 'It was a one-to-two-day promise. Now we have a fifteen-minute promise—and sometimes we can deliver in as short as three minutes,' said McLay. 'Those capabilities are insane for me. They're kinda mind-blowing.' Quick commerce currently accounts for about 20 per cent of India's e-commerce market and is growing at 50 per cent annually. While Flipkart's core business moves steadily towards profitability, McLay said the company is also strategically investing in quick commerce as part of its broader growth roadmap. Walmart views this expansion as part of a longer-term trajectory rather than a linear path to profitability, supported by proof points from other international markets. Flipkart is also applying global best practices across operations. When quick commerce began gaining traction, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy looked to Walmart's China operations—specifically Sam's Club's cloud-based fulfilment model, which delivers 1,000 SKUs in under an hour. Flipkart sent a team to study this system and adapted it to Indian needs, aiming to deliver 6,000 SKUs in under 15 minutes. 'When we saw the rise in quick commerce, our CEO of Flipkart asked me where he could learn about speed within the Walmart enterprise. I pointed him to China,' McLay recalled. 'So he sent a team over to the dark-fulfilment centre, and they learned from that. Then they brought it back to India and said: 'A thousand items in under an hour? We want to do 6,000 items in under fifteen minutes.'' These adaptations are now being shared with other markets, including China, demonstrating how knowledge flows in both directions within Walmart's global network. McLay also highlighted Flipkart's approach to profitability. Unlike Walmart's China operations, which are primarily first-party and lack a digital advertising component, Flipkart includes digital advertising as both a revenue stream and a contributor to its profitability profile. The platform is continually adapting to meet evolving customer expectations in India's dynamic market. One of Flipkart's standout verticals is Myntra—its dedicated platform for beauty, apparel, and accessories. Myntra has built strong capabilities in customisation and hyper-personalisation, and is considered a leader in generative AI within Walmart International. For instance, users can input prompts like, 'I'm going to a wedding in Kerala in the summer with mostly twenty-something guests, and it will be semi-formal,' and the platform generates four outfit recommendations tailored to the query. 'One of the hidden gems, I think, in the Flipkart business is Myntra,' said McLay. Flipkart's broader strategy remains focused on strengthening its core e-commerce operations, expanding its quick-commerce offering, and enhancing personalisation through Myntra. Walmart has reiterated that while profitability is a goal, it will not come at the cost of market share or long-term growth.
News18
6 days ago
- Business
- News18
Walmart Layoffs 2025: US Giant Cuts 1,500 Jobs After Granting 3,800 H-1B Visas, Faces Public Outcry
Last Updated: Walmart Layoffs 2025: The downsizing primarily affects Walmart's global technology team and certain advertising roles, impacting fewer than 1,500 employees overall. Walmart Layoffs 2025: Walmart Inc., the world's largest retailer and one of the biggest private employers in the United States, has initiated significant layoffs targeting its corporate staff. These job cuts are part of Walmart's ongoing strategy to streamline operations and reduce costs in a volatile economic environment. With over 1.6 million employees in the U.S., Walmart is now focusing on reshaping its corporate and technological divisions to enhance efficiency and adaptability. A debate has been erupted since the Walmart layoff reports, with netizens accusing the largest retailer for replacing Americans with foreign workers. Coincidentally, the layoffs came after Walmart reportedly granted 3,800 H1-B visas, which is an employer-sponsored nonimmigrant vias that allows persons who are not citizens or permanent residents of the US to work in a specialty occupation for up to six years with very limited exceptions. The downsizing primarily affects Walmart's global technology team and certain advertising roles, impacting fewer than 1,500 employees overall. According to insider sources cited by Bloomberg, the layoffs have begun at Walmart's Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters and other offices. This broader initiative aims to improve operational efficiency and cut costs during ongoing economic uncertainty. Leadership's Rationale For Layoffs Oh, guess what? The large layoffs today at Walmart… are from its _technology team_. You know, the kind of US worker who's _replaced_ by H1B. — barbaragrantmedia (@bgrantmedia) May 22, 2025 Additionally, a photo of Walmart's Global CTO, Suresh Kumar, was shared by another user who questioned whether it was coincidental that more than 40% of the company's IT workforce reportedly comprised H-1B hires from India. Another comment highlighted, 'Walmart has nearly 3,500 H-1B openings. This isn't 'high skilled.' They're intentionally replacing American workers with foreigners." First Published:
Boston Globe
02-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Temu ditches Chinese imports model to avoid Trump's tariffs
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'The move is designed to help local merchants reach more customers and grow their businesses,' Temu said. It's also 'part of Temu's ongoing adjustments to improve service levels.' Advertisement As of last week, the PDD unit had appeared to pass on nearly all of Donald Trump's new import taxes to US consumers, by adding a clearly labeled surcharge for buyers at checkout. Fast-fashion giant Shein also raised US prices of its products, with hikes of more than 300 percent for certain items. Advertisement Temu had asked Chinese factories to ship their goods in bulk to American warehouses back in February in what it calls a 'half-custody' framework, where it only manages the online marketplace. However, as inventory in the US depletes over time, prices could eventually go up when factories replenish stocks if tariffs on Chinese imports remain elevated at 145 percent. Major US retailers haven't yet raised the prices of goods on shelves. But they're caught in a bind, as Chinese suppliers refuse to absorb tariffs and uncertainty mounts over how long the extra levies will be in place. Companies like Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. could also come under political pressure to absorb some - if not all - of the cost increases, which could help cushion the direct impact on shoppers. The example of Inc. - which said on Tuesday that it wouldn't display the cost of US tariffs on products, after the White House slammed the reported move and Trump complained to Jeff Bezos - underscores the difficult position US consumer retailers are in. If they don't pass on cost increases, profit margins will narrow and become a drag on their stock price.
Time of India
02-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Flipkart, PhonePe, Oyo among $100 billion tech startups eyeing IPOs by 2027
More than three dozen tech startups with a combined valuation of $100 billion are set to go public by 2027 in what would mark a rebound in stock sales in India, according to one of the country's top deal advisers to internet companies. Walmart Inc.-controlled online retailer Flipkart, payments firm PhonePe and lodging provider Oyo Hotels are among the companies seeking to list in the country, which was the world's second-largest market for share sales last year but has lost steam since. Most companies preparing for an initial public offering have been able to strike a balance between speedy growth and profitability, according to a report by the homegrown investment bank The Rainmaker Group. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Pernas e pés inchados: Experimente isso para ajudar a drenar o fluído do edema aartedoherbalismo Undo Young companies are now in better shape than in 2021 and 2022, when several startups that sought to capture India's booming capital markets cratered after listing at high valuations, said Kashyap Chanchani, managing partner at Rainmaker. Payment provider Paytm has dropped about 63% since its IPO while beauty retailer Nykaa is down 4%. Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 1x Playback Rate Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off , selected Captions captions settings , opens captions settings dialog captions off , selected Audio Track default , selected Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. 'The financial health of the startups due to list in the next two years is materially better than the companies that listed previously,' Chanchani, who helped Indian startups raise $1 billion in equity last year, said in an interview. 'Two-thirds of these firms are already profitable, and they are also doing a better job with transparency.' Rainmaker's clients have included Oyo and e-commerce startup Swiggy, and the firm typically receives a cut of the fundraising deals it helps to arrange. It doesn't advise companies on IPOs. Live Events The number of share sales in India dropped by 34% in the first quarter as the stock market sputtered. The benchmark NSE Nifty 50 Index had risen for nine consecutive years, but it started declining in late September amid an unexpected slowdown in economic growth and a slew of analysts downgraded their expectations for corporate earnings. First-quarter proceeds from IPOs, block sales and share placements in India nearly halved to $7.1 billion, slipping below those of Hong Kong and Japan. Still, Chanchani is among bankers predicting that deals in India will pick up in the coming months, when several sales are expected to hit the market. Those include LG Electronics Inc.'s Indian unit, which may raise as much as $1.7 billion, and electric-scooter maker Ather Energy Pvt., which could raise about $400 million. A new surge in startup IPOs would provide a much-needed exit to large investors such as SoftBank Group Corp. and Prosus NV. Billionaire Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Vision Fund is a shareholder in companies such as Oyo, optician Lenskart Solutions Pvt., and used-car seller CARS24 Solutions Pvt., while Prosus is an investor in e-commerce firm Meesho and home services startup Urban Company. Firms like SoftBank and Prosus 'have a dozen companies or so where they are sitting on massive gains, and several of these firms have begun seeking the public markets route,' Chanchani said, cautioning though that IPOs will have to be priced carefully as retail investors will reject lofty valuations. Companies going public will have to assuage investor concerns about a slowing economy and earnings growth. Some of India's newly listed stocks have also declined after sales restrictions expired, adding pressure to a stock market already down hundreds of billions of dollars since late last year. India's startup economy remains among the biggest in the world after the US and China. Still, it's also one that's seen major corporate governance lapses, sinking valuations and profits turning to dust. Many young firms have been forced to cut jobs and growth plans, while others have imploded. Teacher-turned-entrepreneur Byju Raveendran's eponymous online tutoring business illustrates how a once high-flying company can run aground as investors lose faith in founders once-labeled charismatic.
Miami Herald
30-04-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Empty ports, empty shelves? Trump tariff battle set to hit home soon
President Donald Trump's tariff onslaught has roiled Washington and Wall Street for nearly a month. If the trade war persists, the next upheaval will hit much closer to home. Since the U.S. raised levies on China to 145% in early April, cargo shipments have plummeted, perhaps by as much as 60%, according to one estimate. That drastic reduction in goods from one of the largest U.S. trading partners hasn't been felt by many Americans yet, but that's about to change. By the middle of May, thousands of companies - big and small - will be needing to replenish inventories. Giant retailers such as Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. told Trump in a meeting last week that shoppers are likely to see empty shelves and higher prices. Torsten Slok, Apollo Management's chief economist, recently warned of looming "COVID-like" shortages and significant layoffs in industries spanning trucking, logistics and retail. While Trump has shown signs in recent days that he's willing to be flexible on the import taxes imposed on China and others, it may be too late to stop a supply shock from reverberating across the U.S. economy that could stretch all the way to Christmas. "The clock is absolutely ticking," said Jim Gerson, president of The Gersons Companies, an 84-year-old supplier of holiday decorations and candles to major U.S. retailers. The company, based in Olathe, Kansas, sources more than half its products from China and currently has about 250 containers waiting to be shipped. "We have to get this worked out," said Gerson, who's part of the third generation from his family to run the company, which generates roughly $100 million in sales a year. "And hopefully very soon." Even when hostilities ease, restarting transpacific trade will bring additional risks. The freight industry has reduced capacity to match weaker demand. That means a surge of orders sparked by a detente between the superpowers will likely overwhelm the network, causing delays and boosting costs. A similar scenario unfolded during the pandemic when container prices quadrupled and a glut of cargo ships jammed up ports. "There will be a surge in ports and consequently for trucks and rail creating delays and bottlenecks," said Lars Jensen, chief executive officer of shipping consultant Vespucci Maritime. "Ports are designed for stable flows, not the off-again, on-again volume shifts." The U.S. tariffs on China came at a critical time for the retail industry. March and April is when suppliers start ramping up inventory for the second half of the year to fill orders for back-to-school shopping and Christmas. For many firms, the first holiday goods should be hitting the water bound for the U.S. in roughly two weeks. "We are paralyzed," said Jay Foreman, CEO of toymaker Basic Fun in Boca Raton, Florida, which supplies big retail customers such as Inc. and Walmart. He called the tariffs a "de facto embargo" and said customers have been pausing orders so far, but he expects them to start canceling them if the China tariffs stay at this level for much longer. "There's a couple weeks, then it really starts to hurt," said Foreman, whose company generates about $200 million in sales a year and sources roughly 90% of products from China. "We're in a period where the damage is manageable, but every week the damage level is going to increase." The leading edge of that supply jolt is evident in Asia. There are currently about 40 cargo ships that recently stopped at ports in China and are now bound for the U.S., down by about 40% from early April, according to ship tracking compiled by Bloomberg. Those vessels are carrying about 320,000 containers, according to the data, about a third fewer than just after Trump announced he was raising tariffs on almost all goods from China to 145%. Judah Levine, head of research at cargo booking platform Freightos, said a lot of U.S. importers will be front-loading orders from other American trading partners through the 90-day reprieve on Trump's so-called reciprocal tariffs. That could help cushion any China-centric shock through ports and logistics networks. With Chinese merchandise too pricey, some cargo owners in the U.S. are turning to suppliers in Southeast Asia. Hapag-Lloyd AG, the world's fifth-largest container carrier, said in an emailed statement last week that it's seeing cancellations of about 30% of bookings from China to the U.S. But business is sharply up from exporters in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, the Hamburg, Germany-based company said. However, the whiplash effect on the economy still might be difficult to navigate in the months ahead, Levine said. "It is likely there will be a significant slowdown," he said, and "the restart could cause some congestion, with the strength of the rebound and resulting disruption probably correlated to the length of the pause." With demand for goods from China to the U.S. sinking fast, cargo carriers have slashed capacity to keep ocean freight rates from cratering. In April, there were about 80 canceled sailings from China to the U.S., roughly 60% more than any month during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to figures cited by John McCown, a veteran industry executive. "It's a fair statement to say that the container shipping sector has never faced the sort of macro headwinds that it is now facing," McCown said in a recent research note. The World Trade Organization has warned that goods traded between the U.S. and China could decrease by as much as 80%, backing U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's description of the current situation as essentially a trade embargo. The uncertainty is partly why economists say a U.S. recession is almost a coin flip. Forecasters surveyed by Bloomberg expect imports to fall at a 7% annual rate in the second quarter - which would be the biggest drop since the onset of the pandemic. The looming supply shock has prompted economists to revise up their inflation forecasts because it could push prices higher. Executives say price tags on goods from China could double on some items. And that would come at a time when consumer sentiment is deteriorating sharply. If America's trade war with China goes on for a few more weeks, suppliers and retailers will have to make some hard decisions about the second half of the year, including which goods to ship and how much to raise prices. Suppliers are expecting lots of orders to be canceled. That will push retailers to scour the U.S. and other markets for goods to fill their shelves, even if they're from last Christmas. It's also going to be a big financial hit that many companies will likely respond to by cutting costs, including jobs, or taking on pricey debt. The risk is that supply problems morph into a "credit crunch," according to Steven Blitz, TS Lombard's chief U.S. economist. "U.S. firms could find themselves at risk from tariffs, and then the economy more broadly, if these leveraged operations find credit less available because tariffs force them to operate with smaller margins," Blitz wrote in a research note Friday. For Foreman, the past few weeks reminds him of the pandemic, but there are key differences. The COVID lockdown was a shock, but global supply chains bounced back relatively quickly and several sectors, including toys, ended up having record years. This has the potential to be "more treacherous because the longer this goes, the more catastrophic this is," he said. COVID was also littered with lots of unknowns about the virus and how long it would take to rebound. This dilemma could be eased by Trump removing the levies at any time. "The lingering effects could be worse," Foreman said. "But the solution could come much faster." Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
