Walmart-owned e-commerce marketplace Flipkart and its digital payments arm PhonePe’s number of monthly active customers is at an all-time high, Doug McMillon, President and CEO of Walmart said. While speaking to analysts post Walmart’s Q3 financial earnings, Doug said that In India, Flipkart and PhonePe had strong results for the quarter (July-September).
Walmart International’s net sales saw a 5% increase led by a strong growth in net sales of Flipkart, along with Canada and Walmex, the company reported on Tuesday. Walmart acquired a majority stake in the Flipkart Group in 2018.
Doug further added during the analyst call that Flipkart continues to perform well and recently completed its “best ever Big Billion Days sales event in October”.
“Their third quarter GMV continued to reflect strong demand post-COVID lockdowns, with significant growth in monthly active customers,” he added.
Overall, Walmart’s total revenue came in at $134.7 billion, up 5.2% from the same period last year, despite being impacted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Flipkart has been growing its presence aggressively in the country. In the recently concluded BBD sale, Flipkart said it delivered 1 crore shipments in just the first five days of the sale, led by mobiles, fashion, electronics, BGMH (books, general merchandise and home) and home furnishing categories.
It has also been expanding its portfolio. It recently invested Rs 1,500 crore in Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail for a 7.8% stake and said that the strategic partnership is “aimed at enhancing the consumer fashion experience” and “leverage synergies in the fashion segment”.
It also made a strategic investment in youth-focused fashion brand Universal Sportsbiz Pvt Ltd (USPL), a youth-focused fashion brand.
It also raised around $1.2 billion from Walmart, along with a group of existing shareholders, valuing the e-commerce major at $24.9 billion.
PhonePe too, has grown its customer base to over 250 million and is among the leading UPI payment platforms in the country. It also forayed into financial services in 2017 and currently offers digital gold, insurance, among others.