May 24, 2014: In what can be termed as first for Wal-Mart Stores, the Bentonville based retail giant is all set to launch a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform in India for its Best Price store members. This is the first time that Wal-Mart is launching such a platform anywhere in the world. After Walmart broke its ties with Bharti last year, the world’s biggest retailer has been trying to go alone in the wholesale business. In an e-mail a spokesperson of Walmart India was quoted as saying “Walmart India is extending the B2B e-commerce platform to its Best Price store members (kirana stores and other business members), providing them with a convenient online shopping opportunity.” The spokesperson further added that “As an exclusive virtual store for its members, the e-commerce platform will provide a similar assortment of products, as well as special items.”
Walmart would be launching the India specific platform firstly in Lucknow and Hyderabad as a pilot project. The Best Price store members including Kirana stores would be getting the products ordered online to the doorstep with a certain radius. The new platform would be integrated to the existing bestpricewholesale.co.in URL. To make this a workable proposition, Walmart is presently looking for a site to house a fulfillment centre where products would be packaged and shipped to consumers.
Walmart would be checking the response of its online initiative for coming four-five months before takig the venture to all the 20 cities where Best Prices Stores are operational. The company would be initially offering 5000-10000 SKUs available in the physical stores and then would look to scale up the range which Walmart can do it easily since the online platform will not have the constraint of physical stores. This revolutionary move by Walmart is surely going to help the kirana store owners many of them who have to travel 30-40 miles to do their shopping.
