Walmart and Amazon, two major retailers, are planning to invest over Rs 2,000 crore to increase their network in India.
Amazon will be infusing Rs 1,696 crore through a rights issue into Amazon Seller Services, taking the total investment of the company to Rs 4,800 crore in the past 12 months. The online retailer expects India to become its largest market outside the US surpassing UK, Germany, and Japan.
Walmart will also add funds valued at Rs 360 crore, according to an ROC filing. The retail giant plans to expand by opening about 50 stores in India at a time when it recently announced the closing of 269 stores in the US as a part of an exercise to “actively manage” its portfolio of assets, a media report said.
Walmart is learnt to be exploring ways to tie up with leading Indian e-commerce companies such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, ShopClues, Grofers and Bigbasket to tap the growing online retail opportunity.
Goldman Sachs has projected that Indian e-commerce will be a 100 billion US dollar market by 2020, from a single-digit figure now.
