Flipkart continues to grow; Walmart to prioritise Big Billion Days sales

Walmart said it was prioritising the holiday season in major markets including India and will launch its Big Billion Days e-commerce sale around Diwali. (Representative Image)

Flipkart continues to drive strong growth in gross merchandise value (GMV), Walmart said, adding it was prioritising the holiday season in major markets including India which is expected to launch the country's biggest e-commerce sale – Big Billion Days, around Diwali.

Last year, the company had claimed that half of its new customers came from Tier III and plus cities. This was across all categories on Day 1 of its Big Billion Days.

While the company did not share the exact number of customers, it said smaller towns were increasingly adapting to digitisation. Walmart also said that Flipkart's customer stickiness was increasing with its subscription program Flipkart Plus.

"It’s a tiered program based on spend that helps us drive higher repeat rates. Customers in the program transact more frequently and we see lower churn than others," said Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart Inc.

Flipkart which last month announced a $3.6 billion investment round was acquired by Walmart in 2018.

The current round takes its valuation to $37.6 billion, giving it firepower to compete with Amazon, Tata Digital Reliance in India, even as it prepares for a public listing in the US in the coming year.

"There were large votes of confidence from a strong group of investors, and we’ll put those dollars to work to deliver growth in key areas such as grocery, fashion and our supply chain," said McMillon.

"We continue to build a very sizable e-commerce business around the world. In fact, we’re on-track to deliver $75 billion in global e-commerce sales this year and on our way to $100 billion in the near term. We’re also seeing continued strong US market share gains in grocery, which is a key part of our business," he added.