Walmart’s JV With Bharti For E-Commerce Portal May Not Fructify

(Before It's News)

Bharti-Walmart‘s e-commerce plans in India may not materialize. The latest & frankly worrisome developments at the company surely suggest so.

According to a report from Economic Times (ET), the JV has dissolved the team entrusted with the development of the web-portal & assigned different roles to them. Additionally, Business Head, Digital Vertical at Bharti Walmart, Dippankar Halder has supposedly been let go & he has even sought the legal route to protest against his dismissal.

Walmart had setup an offline store in Andhra Pradesh last year & was also contemplating a national expansion through its chains of stores. Christened ‘Best Price’ & ‘Easyday’, these stores would have ushered a new wave of an international MNC having physical presence across India. While Amazon was officially the first global MNC to come to India, its presence was limited to the virtual stores via Junglee.

However, as with every FDI investment, Bharti-Walmart JV too faced some legal troubles in India & was accused of violating the rule about single-brand retail. Foreign hyper-store brands are not allowed to have a multi-brand outlet. A while ago Ikea, a furniture manufacturer managed to get entry into India as it was hawking only single brand products.

Walmart had been eyeing a virtual store for India for quite some time. Owing to global pressures from Amazon, the owner was forced to seek offshore markets & India was a good option. Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman who had jointly setup @WalmartLabs, a R&D facility have resigned too.

Online e-commerce is by-far the safest bet to cater to a vast country like India. However, company like Walmart will have to improve its game-play if it wishes to taste success in India. What may have prompted Walmart to scrap its plans for an e-commerce portal?

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2012-08-10 00:20:44

Source: http://www.watblog.com/2012/08/10/walmarts-jv-with-bharti-for-e-commerce-portal-may-not-fructify/

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