The world’s largest retailer, Walmart, on Thursday said that its Flipkart-led India business and Walmex-led China business led to strong topline growth in its international business in the May to July period.
This had helped the retailer post a 11% year-on-year growth in its international business to $27 billion in Q2.
India and China had reported double-digit growth in the quarter under review, Walmart said. The company follows a February to January accounting year.
Commending the India business, in particular, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in an analysts call on Thursday that Myntra was the largest fashion and lifestyle marketplace in India.
Flipkart, he said, continued to deliver strong gross merchandise value (GMV) and net sales growth during the period.
Walmart’s international e-commerce business grew by nearly 26% year-on-year in Q2, while the advertising business (for the international segment) grew by 40% from the corresponding July quarter a year ago, its results showed.
Walmart has an 80.5% stake in Flipkart, according to data from Tracxn.
“Flipkart’s consistent progress and performance reinforces our confidence in the long-term value of this business.
India is leading the largest digital transformation in the world and Flipkart is the largest marketplace in India. We continue to be impressed by PhonePe,” John David Rainey, executive vice president and CFO at Walmart, said.
He added that PhonePe had registered annualised Total Payment Value (TPV) of $1.15 trillion and—for the first time—had processed over five billion transactions per month.
Walmart recently bought Tiger Global’s stake in Flipkart for $1.4 billion. The transaction valued Flipkart at $35 billion, down from $38 billion in 2021.
Overall, Walmart beat Q2 2024 expectations, clocking consolidated revenue of $161.6 billion, up 5.7% versus the previous year.
Walmart has revised expectations for its full-year consolidated net sales to about 4-4.5%.
The net income for Walmart for Q2 jumped by 53% to $7.89 billion, compared to $5.15 billion, year-on-year.
E-commerce sales for Walmart US grew by 24% year-on-year, led by strong curbside pickup and delivery.
Outgoing President and CEO of Walmart International Judith McKenna said that Myntra’s integration with ChatGPT to launch an AI-assistant called MyFashionGPT (on the Myntra app) was a sign of the growing use of generative AI across businesses.
“GenAI is coming to life in India and we are very proud to be associated with the market for five years,” she said.