Walmart adds Flipkart to its cart: The beginning of a new bout between Walmart and Amazon

Timeline: Flipkart’s journey from a bookseller platform to India’s largest e-commerce company

Amazon and Walmart have been bitter competitors in the US for two decades.

Though Walmart remains the largest retailer in the world – through its over 4,600 stores out of total 11,000 worldwide - it has struggled to find a way into the e-commerce industry.

In 2017, the share of e-commerce in total US retail sales was 9 percent, as per data from eMarketer/Statista.

Also Read: Walmart buys 77% of Flipkart for $16 bn; global retail giant to bring in fresh equity of $2 bn

In the same year, Amazon clocked sales of $54.47 billion. Walmart, on the other hand, managed to earn $14.01 billion through e-commerce sales in 2017.

This could explain the genesis of Walmart’s efforts to grab the e-commerce market in upcoming markets such as India.

Notably, on February 20 earlier this year, Walmart’s stocks crashed and wiped out USD 30 billion from its market cap in a single day.

On its earning call the same day, the company's executives informed that the company will double down on its investments in e-commerce and online grocery sales.

Also Read: Why Walmart is investing in a loss-making Flipkart

Amazon, on the other hand, has also tried to deliver some body blows.

The Seattle-based retail and tech giant acquired Whole Foods, a retailer selling organic foods and has about 473 outlets in the US.

Marrying retail with technology, it has also opened Amazon Go, a physical store without a checkout counter in Seattle, Washington.

The customer can pick up what they want from the store and leave while the Amazon Go app will bill them for the groceries.

In the last two years, Walmart has been on an acquisition spree of e-commerce platforms in the US.

One of its major acquisition was Jet.com that it acquired in 2016 for USD 3.3 billion.

With this deal, Walmart was in direct competition with Amazon.

It acquired several another e-commerce players such as Bonobos - an online retailer for men's apparel,  ModCloth - a vintage-inspired women's clothing online retailer and Hayneedle.com - an online furniture retailer.

With a slew of acquisitions, it has grabbed a position among the top five e-commerce players in the US but it is still behind Amazon both in terms of products sold and market share.

Outside the US, apart from India, Amazon recently bought the Middle East's largest e-commerce player Souq.com for $580 million in cash.

India, however, is a new ballgame altogether and a bigger one at that.

Walmart exited the UK market late last month by selling Asda to Sainsbury’s in a $10.1 billion cash and stock deal.

After the deal, Judith McKenna, the CEO of Walmart said in a statement: “This proposed merger represents a unique and bold opportunity, consistent with our strategy of looking for new ways to drive international growth”.

From what it seems, the tack of hitting your opponent where it hurts the most, has ruled the bout to grab the global retail market between Amazon and Walmart. The audience can expect this one to run until the twelfth round.