INDIA – Walmart India is planning to hire about 1,000 people for technology operations in India as it embarks on its technology strategy to boost ecommerce platform in and outside India.
ET Retail report indicated that Walmart has technology operations in Bengaluru and Gurgaon and currently has about 1,800 employees.
The move is vital for the American retailer even as completion intensifies from the likes of Amazon who has introduced Amazon Prime that provides faster & free delivery along with early access to major sales.
“One of things: we are doing a lot different. We have Walmart Labs, which is ecommerce.
You have My Group which is global business services, we are trying to be more product-oriented.
We have taken whole projects and moved them over to drive the Indian ownership of the product, we think that is helping but this will help even more (in retaining talent),” Walmart chief information officer Clay Johnson told ET.
Counting on technology out of India
This move looks to expand Walmart’s headcount and drive more product ownership out of India.
India forms a basis for Walmart’s technology development products and most of them were being utilized outside the country, including its return process for its 5,000 US stores.
“A lot of our Internet-of-things work that sits in our stores.
A lot of those end-to-end products are done here with the sensors and the data are being done here,” he added.
According to analysts, Walmart spends about US$10 billion a year on Information Technology and it is working to retain a larger share of the market in the midst of fierce competition from Amazon.
Johnson said the company was working with a slew of Indian IT services providers to co-innovate solutions and that they had shown the ability to make changes to the way they work.
This according to him, takes its focus on how to use technology to drive their competitive advantage.
