Walmart has a tough battle ahead in India

E-COMMERCE IN INDIA is a political and regulatory minefield. US consumer giant Walmart Inc.—which has been waiting to launch the much-anticipated initial public offering of the online marketplace it acquired for $16 billion six years ago—has had its patience tested. It's unlikely to get Flipkart out the door next year; a 2026 IPO may be a more reasonable expectation, with a little diplomatic help from the incoming government in Washington.

- Andy Mukherjee Bloomberg

The business side of things is not the reason for the delay. Flipkart is the country's largest e-commerce player, ahead of Amazon.com Inc. The homegrown app lacks the consumer-service finesse of its rival, but its sheer reach across a continent-sized geography gives it the heft that took the likes of Unilever Plc a century to build.

Flipkart is a stake Walmart has put down in a market where brick-and-mortar foreign retailers face stifling restrictions. That's not an immediate problem; it might take a decade before Indians have the purchasing power to sustain a franchise like Sam's Club, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based firm's members-only warehouse division that is defying China's consumption funk. The question is, will New Delhi be ready for Sam's Club in 10 years?