Walmart readies 'Open Call' in India on way to $10 bn a year export target

'The category expansion over the last 15 years has been incredible …The ingenuity, the grit, the education of the labour force are a strategic advantage in India'

Retail major Walmart is looking at an India-first opportunity on sourcing for the world as it readies to host a never-before mega sellers’ summit in New Delhi on February 14 and 15 next year. This is the first India outing for the Bentonville-headquartered group’s flagship summit and the second outside of America. Typically an annual American event held in the US for about a decade, the sellers’ meet was held in Mexico last April, breaking from the past.        

In a conversation with Business Standard here on Tuesday, Andrea Albright, Executive Vice President – Sourcing, Walmart, said the India meet would be “much broader in scale” compared to the earlier summits in the US and Mexico. With its focus on export-ready suppliers, the two-day event starting on the Valentine’s Day will bring together Indian companies and around 50-60 Walmart merchants from the US. As part of the summit, Walmart’s Open Call, as the name suggests, would enable the global buyers to evaluate products showcased by Indian sellers and entrepreneurs for export. On offer will be real-time deals and packages, to make sourcing from India a win-win for both sides.

Sourcing, as Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, had told this newspaper in an interview earlier this year, is one of the four critical pieces of India business for the group. The other three pieces are Flipkart, PhonePe and technology. The sellers’ meet—Walmart Growth Summit—is being seen as an important step towards attaining the company’s goal of sourcing products worth $10 billion per annum from India by 2027. Albright didn’t give out any estimate of the current sourcing from India. “We are on track to achieve the target.”    

Walmart’s India sourcing is at around $3 billion annually, according to market estimates. After sourcing from India for more than 20 years, the $3 billion figure needs to triple in the next four years for Walmart to reach the goal of $10 billion by 2027. Explaining the significance of India sourcing , Albright said that other than the US, India is the only market that Walmart has announced a public commitment on exports. “We are confident in our ability to hit the goal by 2027,” she said, adding that India is among the chain’s top priority markets, based on current volume and future potential.

On where the India-sourced products are sold most, Albright said the US is Walmart’s biggest market for Indian exports. The categories for sourcing range from  toys to bicycles; food to health, wellness, general merchandise, apparel and home textiles. “We are starting to explore electronics and shoes as additional categories as well,” Albright said.

To have the right alignments, Indian sellers are increasingly setting up their offices close to the Bentonville headquarters of Walmart. Among the latest Indian suppliers to have offices in Bentonville (Arkansas) is Mrs. Bector’s Food Specialties. Welspun, Trident Group and FishinCo are among others.

Walmart’s sourcing business operates separately from its subsidiaries Flipkart and PhonePe. In 2018, Walmart had acquired a majority stake in Flipkart.   

When asked how Walmart would be able to hit the $10 billion per annum sourcing target by 2027, Albright said:  “The category expansion over the last 15 years has been incredible, including the growth around transportation and supply chain…The ingenuity, the grit, the education of the labour force is a strategic advantage in India.”

To meet its export targets, Walmart is partnering with key stakeholders to make sure it has the right collaborations to remove any barriers that may exist for certain industries.