Flipkart plans wholesale business launch

Flipkart plans to launch its wholesale business in the next financial quarter and work towards adding fashion goods to the segment following its initial launch.

Walmart-owned Flipkart has ameliorated its supply chain capabilities and work with manufacturers over the past few months to prepare to launch a wholesale business, ET Bureau reported. Although the initial launch will focus on groceries, Flipkart plans to add fashion to its wholesale business later on, and then work on growing the segment.

“The idea is to look at the B2B [business-to-business] space with the same technology-first approach as B2C [business-to-customer],” an anonymous source told ET Bureau about Flipkart’s wholesale plans.

Flipkart’s senior vice president, Adarsh Menon, will lead the wholesale business and Flipkart will also partner with local Kirana stores across India.

A company spokesperson said that Flipkart’s wholesale business will support Kirana stores and help them to grow. Flipkart has already launched a pilot project to supply fast-moving consumer goods to Kirana stores around the Delhi NCR, sources told ET Bureau.

Flipkart’s parent company Walmart has seen its own India wholesale business continue to incur losses for several years.

Although neither business has made a statement on the matter, numerous media reports have predicted that Walmart will merge its wholesale cash and carry business with Flipkart’s in the future.

Flipkart plans wholesale business launch

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