Flipkart Expands Banking Plans With Personal Loans Program

Walmart’s Flipkart is reportedly entering the lending sector as it battles Amazon for India’s consumers.

The eCommerce site has begun offering customers personal loans through a partnership with Axis Bank, per a recent report by Indian news outlet The Arc. That report — citing unnamed sources — says Flipkart has also applied for a non-bank financial company (NBFC) license.

The Arc report also notes that Flipkart has beaten another Walmart-backed firm, payments company PhonePe, into the personal lending space. PhonePe had been part of Flipkart until the two firms separated last year.

According to The Arc, many Indian startups offer personal loans, but Flipkart could have an edge in that it has a user base of more than 300 million people, as well as all their shopping data. Most of these consumers come from small towns, and familiarity could move them to opt for Flipkart over other companies, the report said.

PYMNTS has contacted Flipkart for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.

The news comes as Walmart and rival Amazon are looking to the fast-growing economy of India to help drive sales.

Late last month, Amazon announced it planned to invest $26 billion in the country by 2030, which followed earlier pledges of a $12.9 billion investment by Amazon Web Services, and a $6.5 billion investment to boost its Indian eCommerce business.

As PYMNTS has written, thanks to Flipkart, Walmart leads Amazon in eCommerce sales in India, where it enjoyed a 48% share of the market.

The retailer announced earlier this year that Flipkart’s discounted resale product app Shopsy is growing both in numbers and geographically across India, tripling its number of units, customers and sellers over the past year, with the app being downloaded 175 million times.

The company is counting on both Flipkart and PhonePe to help it achieve its goal of doubling its overseas gross merchandise volume to $200 billion in five years.

“It is not crazy to think that both those businesses could be $100 billion businesses in the future,” John David Rainey, the company’s finance chief, said at a June investors conference.

Of the two companies, one remains the clear winner in the overall race for online shoppers, PYMNTS research has found.

“With Amazon accounting for an estimated 48% of U.S. retail spend compared to Walmart’s 7%, it is evident who takes the eCommerce crown,” PYMNYTS noted last month.

Between the first quarter of 2022 and the same period this year, Amazon’s share of eCommerce spend grew from 43.7 to 47.9%, while Walmart’s share rose from 5.7% to 6.7%.

But there are indications Walmart is focusing on taking a piece of Amazon’s digital sales. Management said on a recent earnings call that it had seen a 27% growth in its comparable eCommerce sales gains, or $16.9 billion in sales in the first quarter of 2023.

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