Doug McMillon, CEO and President of the Walmart, world’s largest retailer, has said that India is a diverse country and Walmart has to think and execute locally and comply with its rules.
He underlined that Indian market is very unique and is one of the most exciting around the world. It is amongst the top three along with the US and China. Notably, India’s retail market is estimated to reach over US $ 1 trillion by 2025.
“It has its own rules. So we’ve got to comply with those rules. Today we’re not allowed to make foreign direct investment in a multi-brand retail store, the bricks-and-mortar store. So we operate in a different way,” Doug said during a fireside chat with Prof. Murali Mantrala of The University of Kansas School of Business during a virtual event.
“No doubt every market where we operate, especially India, is going to have challenges. It is a very dynamic environment. Rules, customers and competition are changing,” said Doug. “The real question is, can you show up every day and have a really capable engaged set of associates and leaders that want to solve tomorrow’s problems.”
Doug said he is excited about the leadership teams at Flipkart and PhonePe and the associates in India and the businesses that are being built. He said the Flipkart business has now reached over 300,000 marketplace sellers and PhonePe business has more than 300 million users. “Both are growing very well,” said Doug. “It’s been really fun to see how our team there solve problems because you have to be so creative, open and fast and that inspires us around the world.”
Walmart is focusing on technologies related to the optimisation of data. It is also looking at the role of mathematics and algorithms to help it understand how the whole system works from forecasting to the customer experience. Other technologies include robotics and automation. In the future, it expects to see a huge role being played by innovations such as automated storage and retrieval systems and electric vehicles and drones for last-mile connectivity.