Walmart India Ties Up With HDFC Bank To Launch Co-Branded Credit Card

With continued focus on India and ensuring deeper access to the B2B market, US-based retailer Walmart on Monday (December 2) announced that it has tied up with HDFC Bank to launch a co-branded credit card exclusively for members of its Best Price Modern Wholesale “B2B Cash and Carry” stores.

The card was launched at Hyderabad store, as well as 26 other Best Price Modern Wholesale Store locations pan India. The companies said that under the new collaboration, registered members of Walmart India’s ‘Best Price’ across the country will now also be able to pay for their purchases via the exclusive co-branded credit card, in addition to other payment solutions already available to them.

Announcing the launch, Krish Iyer, President and CEO, Walmart India said, “This partnership reiterates our commitment to help our members, especially kiranas and other small businesses to prosper. This will help the members streamline their business processes and spend more time in their stores and serve their customers.”

The company said that the users will be able to make payments with the exclusive card in-store, as well as via the Best Price online platform and assisted-ordering solutions. The co-branded card will offer Best Price members rewards and cashback on all purchases, along with additional savings on annual spends.

The card will help Best Price members to simplify and manage their business spends, all while enjoying unique privileges and offers.

Parag Rao, country head, Payments Business and Marketing, HDFC Bank said, “Small and medium enterprises are the backbone of the Indian economy. We are therefore delighted that we have this special card offering exclusively for retailers in this segment, which will give them easy access to credit for all their business expenses with exceptional rewards.”

Previously, the company had claimed that over 19 of these B2B stores had broken even. Walmart also runs a membership-based programme that counts more than one million members.

The company sources its catalogue from smallholder farmers and regional supplier and sells to local kirana stores, hotels and catering firms. According to the company statement issued last year, it wants to spend approximately $500 Mn to open another 47 stores in India by 2022.

A Euromonitor report titled Top 100 Retailers in Asia has ranked Walmart as the number one player in India’s retail companies, because of the Flipkart acquisition. As Walmart leverages Flipkart to strengthen ecommerce presence, its business on B2B front is expected to see further growth too.

Walmart joins the long list of technology companies enabling credit access for their users via co-branded credit cards. In July 2019, fintech startup Open tied up with global card payment network, Visa to launch a suite of innovative products that include a business credit card for SMEs, payment gateway and real-time payments.

Also, earlier, Ola launched an Ola Money-SBI Credit Card with plans to issue as many as 10 Mn credit cards by 2022. Also, Flipkart and Axis Bank partnered to launch a co-branded credit card. A similar partnership was announced between Amazon-ICICI; GoIbibo-ICICI; Ola-SBI; BigBasket-DBS bank among others earlier this year.

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