The FLIPKART business as best seen by investors and the various jurists over the many years was that of a sinking business in valuation.
Then why did Walmart chose a falling bird to fly high in India market. First it had to salvage its initial hurt of investment with Bharti group. Second the Indian government restricted its operations to where there was a city with million customers. That may have been a bit hard for Walmart.
The only route was to do a ” retail/online shopping of brand” on whose shoulder they could use to fire upon the Indian market with their products and services.
But the fear of the Indian store owner be it small format next door shops or the bigger supermarkets around may feel that Walmart may dump its own products and labels at very low costs. Well the fear of such invasions has seen that India out grew and out lived all such entries, be it IBM or Coke or Enron or the big retail or franchise chains announced by Reliance, McDonald etc. The consumers were selective and made the survival of the fittest a game to be played by the big players itself. For e.g. Reliance could not keep its grocery shops in all the places it opened, it closed many shops, similarly McDonald, similarly with Jio entry all other players reduced prices. In India today two or three cards are flashed daily by the citizens who have them- debit/credit, pan, Aadhaar, voter Id as proof of id or for purchase. Other forms like Paytm, net banking is favoured by the elite to the small time grocer.
A million-card flashed for purchases each minute in Indian soil and for a purchase of at least one dollar worth and yes Walmart would be in glee in a few years. Sixteen Billion dollars it paid Flipkart or invested in a “ready-made shop” online makes no sense as it served the founders and investors and they are very few.
India has changed, and the young Indians are more impulsive and compulsive in their purchases and buy products for sheer try and fad value. There in lies the Data mining and analytics of these big companies like Walmart who will have all access to an Indian identity with what he owns, buys, how much purchased etc statistics that will be enough to help more US companies plan strategies to flood India with goods and the USA businessmen are no Agarwals, Mittals, Ambani, Godrej etc they are more ruthless in profits and performance, quality and control, speed and accuracy. That should be excellent for the service levels that will be set in for the competition and various industry.
But back to the question – is there a way to push away Walmart or let it coexist like the Unilever and Cadbury’s that has made India their home. Yet our citizens made Patanjali a success after giving it a rough time initially. Indian brands are plenty, but Walmart word suddenly seems daunting and causes challenge and there is a great awe or wow moments going on this time. For Walmart only, the slogan shouting innocent citizens who are not the buyers will disrupt the process initially and this protest will become a whimper.
My recommendation would have been for Walmart to do a smarter Pepsico efforts by aligning with the key growth engine driver in India the farmers. The money it spent on a few hundred Flipkartians instead would have brought smiles on a million farmers if they had decided to modernize the farm produce for Indian farmers and riding on this wave would have made it easier for them to take on other business easily. That they have spent the money, I wish the Indian giants can do the same by helping the farmers and realizing their potential and goodwill to create a better online store for farm produce and make an online store that can take on Walmart. Either we need a homegrown Jack Ma or some of the existing big Groups to don on Business war Gown and take this great WALMART head-on. Flipkart while losing let the big guys in. All is fare in sales and marketing, a price to pay for managing, running and expanding a company.
The days of political imperialism and expansion is over. Now it just a brand through a corporate route that is required to reach millions of homes instantly. As I wrote in earlier article on dynasts, the new business has a dynast who is entering India with grandfather’s idea.
Welcome Dynast Steuart Walton.
