Double-digit growth in Flipkart’s sales primarily helped its owner, Walmart, improve its net e-commerce sales by 400 basis points (bps) to $5.75 billion, the US-based retail giant said while releasing its results for the July-September quarter on Tuesday.

In constant currency terms, Walmart’s total net sales grew to $26.8 billion in the quarter, up 13.3% from the same period last year. E-commerce sales compromised about 23% of that amount. The growth in e-commerce sales was helped by the “strong growth from Flipkart due in part to timing of the Big Billion Days (BBD) event, which moved from Q4 last (calendar) year to Q3 this (calendar) year,” Walmart said in its investor presentation. 

The timing of Flipkart’s BBD event also helped Walmart slow its inventory growth to 2.5% in the July-September period, on y-o-y basis.

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 Walmart ended the September quarter with an inventory of $12.2 billion. In  April-June, Walmart’s inventory grew about 15.1% on a y-o-y basis to touch $10.8 billion. 

“That (Flipkart’s BBD sale) is an event which is designed to try to bring new customers onboard for Flipkart and looks to be successful in doing that again. A billion visits over the eight days of the event shows you the amount of traffic that it generates and customers, many of who shop for the first time, it brings. Flipkart continues to meet our expectations…,”  Walmart executives said in a post-earnings call with analysts. 

“In India, Flipkart had a great quarter with strong customer response to Big Billion Days sales,” they said. 

Earlier this month, PTI  reported that Flipkart has burnt $3.7 billion cash in about a year ending September, according to regulatory filings. The e-commerce giant had $1 billion in cash in July 2021, which came down to $887 million by September 2022, the report added. 

Flipkart had raised $3.6 billion in July 2021 which has been completely exhausted, according to regulatory filings of Flipkart and Walmart, the report said. 

In India, Flipkart Internet Private saw its net loss widen 51% on a y-o-y basis to `4,362 crore in FY22 even as revenues rose 34% y-o-y to `10,477 crore. The company’s operating loss or Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) loss jumped to `3,925 crore, up from `2,267 crore in FY21, according to regulatory filings accessed via Tofler. Losses surged due to rising transportation, advertising, marketing and legal charges. A&P (advertising & promotional) expenses that were up over 80% in FY22 to `1,946 crore.

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In comparison, Amazon Seller Services’  losses narrowed to `3,649.2 crore in FY22 from `4,748.1 crore in FY21, data from Tofler showed. Revenues from operations went up by 32.4% to `21,462 crore.