At a time when Bharti Enterprises is ready to kick off operations in partnership with global retail giant Wal-Mart, industry experts feel that the joint venture will provide an excellent learning ground to the US-based company in India.
Considering the unsuccessful track record of Wal-Mart in major international markets, experts feel that the partnership provides a learning opportunity for the global retailer.
"Wal-Mart will use the partnership to closely study India. This partnership will be critical as the US retail giant has failed in countries like China, Japan, South Korea and Germany. Also Bharti will probably be a senior partner, which will help Wal-Mart learn in India," UK-based Planet Retail's Global Sales Manager Paul Martin told PTI, on the sidelines of the 'Technopak Retail Summit' in New Delhi.
Bharti will benefit from the latter's international experience and technical know-how, he added. Planet Retail provides retail database and solutions to its around 12,000 clients across the globe, including Reliance Retail, Hypercity and Vishal Retail in India.
Commenting on Wal-Mart's business model, Paul said the company first enters a country in partnership with any of the local players and later acquires other domestic companies to set up independent operations.
When asked what could be Wal-Mart's course of action in India, Paul said: "It was not likely to acquire Bharti because even the Indian company was strong enough. So, first Wal-Mart will study the market and then might go on its own, but for now it's a wait and watch situation."
He said the current FDI restrictions in Indian retail sector were in a way good for Wal-Mart as it would give sufficient time to the company to gain experience.
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