Walmart's global empire

The world’s largest retailer, Walmart, has an international reach of 6,360 stores across five continents. According to Bloomberg, the contribution of its international business to total revenue has reduced from about 30 percent five years back, to less than one-quarter of its total revenue. Reason? Competition, store closures and weak economies. With Doug McMillon as CEO, the company has seen a strategic change – buying e-commerce startups and focusing on potential markets like China and India. In the context of Walmart’s mega deal with one of India's largest ecommerce portals, Flip

Curated By: Forbes India

Published: May 10, 2018

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Maxxi Wholesale, which offers products ranging from food to hygiene and cleaning, is one of the many popular brands Walmart owns in Brazil. However, amid a climate of political unrest and a sluggish economy, Walmart is in talks with private-equity firm Advent International to sell a controlling stake in its Brazilian operations.

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Walmart began its operations in Argentina in 1995. Changomas has a range of products to meet the tastes and customs of various communities and cities. Currently, there are about 106 stores only in Argentina including various formats under the Walmart brand name, including, Changomas, Changomas Express, Walmart and Walmart Supermercado.

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China’s largest online giant happens to be Alibaba, and its toughest competitor there is JD.com. Walmart, in June 2016, sold Yihaodian, its Chinese online grocery store for a stake in JD.com. Although, Walmart has about 440 stores in China, a strategic alliance with JD.com helped, especially since the world's most populous country has over 700 million people online, according to Associated Press.

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Mexico is Walmart’s largest market with about 2,358 stores nationwide. The Aurrerá store was first set up by the Arango brothers, bringing the supermarket model to Mexico. In 1991, Walmart entered into a joint venture with the parent company of the Aurrerá store, and in 1997 bought majority stake there. After this, Walmart set up the brand Bodega Aurrerá. Today, the brand has over 372 stores.

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With operations in Canada since 1994, Walmart has about 400 stores across the nation. While the supercenters or supermarkets offer products ranging from home décor to electronics and grocery, Walmart.ca is their flagship online store.

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Walmart’s one-stop shopping model never really took off in Japan since its shoppers had evolved to incline towards online shopping. Today, Seiyu -- in which Walmart owns majority stake as of 2005 -- and operates supermarkets, departmental stores, and shopping centres, happens to be way behind leaders like Seven & i Holdings Co. and Aeon Co. In an attempt to revamp its online grocery service, Walmart teamed up with local player, Rakuten Inc, earlier this year, according to Bloomberg.

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Makro, part of the Massmart brand in South Africa, trades in food, general merchandise and liquor with stores located in major metropolitan areas. The first Makro store opened in 1971 and around 1989, became a part of Massmart. In 2011, Walmart entered South Africa through a merger with Massmart. Today, Massmart operates in more than 400 stores in South Africa and 12 other sub-Saharan countries.

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