Flipkart’s Double-Digit Revenue Growth Drives Walmart’s Q1 International Sales

Indian ecommerce giant Flipkart saw a double-digit revenue growth in the quarter ended April 30, 2023 (Q1 FY24), helping its parent Walmart post strong international sales growth during the quarter.

Besides India, similar topline growth in China and Mexico helped the retail giant post about 13% year-on-year (YoY) growth in its international sales, on a constant currency basis, to $26.8 Bn in Q1, Walmart said. 

During its earnings call, Walmart said it also saw improvement in Flipkart’s contribution profit during the quarter. It said while Flipkart’s ecommerce platform continues to scale with expansion in Tier-II, III cities, its logistics business Ekart business now has over 35,000 kirana partners. 

As per the company, Flipkart’s new products and services are also witnessing growth. Flipkart Travel, which added bus reservation services to its offering during the quarter, is already capable of offering 1 Mn bus connections to the customers, the company told the investors.

Meanwhile, Walmart said its Indian fintech platform PhonePe reached an annualised total payment volume (TPV) of $1 Tn for the first time during April 2022-March 2023 period.

Impressed with the growth in the Indian market, a Walmart executive said that Flipkart and PhonePe are becoming a “mutually reinforcing flywheel” of strength for the parent company in the country. 

The company also highlighted that PhonePe is enabling 36 Mn merchants online to grow their businesses.

It must be noted that PhonePe recently raised $200 Mn of primary capital from Walmart as part of its $1 Bn fundraise to grow its UPI business and scale up new businesses such as insurance and wealth management.

“A group of us were there (in India) last week and we left even more excited about our opportunities. Flipkart and PhonePe are doing well. Our Walmart tech team there is strong and we have a big opportunity to increase our exports from India across quite a few merchandise categories,” said Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart.

McMillon recently stated that Walmart was aiming to source $10 Bn worth of Indian goods each Year by 2027.

Overall, Walmart reported better-than-expected consolidated revenue of $152.3 Bn, up 7.6% YoY in Q1 FY24. Its net income stood at $1.67 Bn, or 62 cents per share, during the quarter.

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