America’s largest retailer Walmart Stores (NYSE: WMT) might become a major player in India’s e-commerce market.

The discounter is considering purchasing 40% of Flipkart for $4.6 billion, Market Mad House reported. If those reports are true, Walmart might finally succeed in becoming a major player in the Indian market.

The Flipkart deal makes it a good time to introduce Walmart to Indians. The discount giant is a huge presence in the lives of many North Americans, but it is virtually unknown on the subcontinent.

Walmart at a Glance

Here are some important details about Walmart to introduce it to Indians.

• Walmart already has a small presence in India. It operates 21 Best Price Modern Wholesale stores that offer 5,000 items on a cash and carry basis. More information about Walmart India is available here: https://www.wal-martindia.in/.

• Walmart was founded in 1962 as Wal-Mart Discount City by retail legend Sam Walton in the American state of Arkansas.

• When he died in 1992, Walton was the richest man in the world. His heirs; the Waltons, are the richest family in America with an estimated fortune of $130 billion in 2016, according to Forbes.

• Walmart is considered the largest publicly-traded corporation in the world, because it reported annual revenues of $485.873 billion in 2017.

• Walmart’s revenues are nearly three times larger than those of Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN); which reported yearly revenues of $177.866 billion on 31 December 2017.

• Walmart changed its legal name from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to Walmart Inc. in 2018.

• Walmart operated 4,672 stores in the United States in 2017.

• Walmart operated 11,695 stores worldwide in 2017.

• Walmart owns the British grocer ASDA. ASDA is the third largest grocer in the United Kingdom; with 15.3% of that country’s grocery market, according to the BBC.

• Walmart is the largest grocer in the United States by volume. Walmart currently controls 21.5% of the US grocery market according to CNBC.

• Walmart also owns the Sam’s Club membership club stores in the United States.

• Walmart has been successful in some countries; such as the USA, Canada, and Mexico, but not in others. Walmart pulled out of Germany in 2006 by selling 85 stores to Metro Group. Walmart pulled out of South Korea in the same year.

• Walmart controls just 3.6% of U.S. ecommerce. In contrast Amazon holds 43.5% of American online retail sales, eMarketer reported.

• Despite that Walmart’s sales grew by 50% between 3rd Quarter 2016 and 3rd Quarter 2017.

• Walmart has been accumulating an extensive portfolio of U.S. ecommerce companies. Its acquisitions in the past few years include Jet.com, delivery service Parcel, outdoor retailer Moosejaw, fashion retailer Modcloth, ShoeBuy or Shoes.com, and men’s retailer Bonobos.

• The Flipkart purchase would be the largest online acquisition for Walmart. The second largest was discounter Jet.com which it purchased for $3 billion in 2016.

• Walmart’s in house payment app, Walmart Pay was more popular than Apple Pay in November 2017, Bloomberg Technology and Market Mad House reported. More Americans used Walmart Pay than Apple Pay a study by Forester Research discovered.

• Nearly 95% of Americans shopped at Walmart in 2016, the NPD Group estimated. In contrast only 42% of Americans shopped at Amazon in 2016.

• Even though Walmart has a reputation as a working-class retailer; it has been making an effort to attract more affluent customers, by purchasing luxury retailers such as Bonobos in recent months. Walmart is also experimenting with an on-demand shopping service for affluent mothers in New York City, Recode reported.

• Walmart is also a technology company. It operates an incubator called Store No. 8 in Silicon Valley that is investing in such experiments as an automated store; and algorithms that shop online for customers, Fortune reported.

• Some Walmart customers in the United States can have orders delivered directly to their doors within hours after ordering them. Uber is among the companies that deliver some Walmart orders in the United States.

• Walmart also offers a wide variety of financial services in the United States including money orders, money transfers, debit cards, and check-cashing at its stores in the United States.

• Walmart is America’s largest private employer – it has around 1.5 million employees in the United States.

• Some Walmart supercentre stores in the United States contain such amenities as banks, medical clinics, auto-service centres, tire shops, hair salons, and McDonald’s fast-food restaurants.

As you can see Walmart is far more than just a retailer. Walmart has the resources to quickly become one of the largest players in Indian retail if it wishes. More importantly, Walmart has the potential to make large investments in India. Indians should welcome a larger presence of this company in their nation.