Walmart India activates UPI on its B2B e-commerce platform

Walmart India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart Inc, today activated unified payments interface (UPI) for all its registered members.

This payment solution will enable members, especially kiranas/resellers, who shop online at Walmart India's B2B e-commerce site www.bestprice.in, to make direct and secured payments online from their bank account without sharing bank details, the global retail giant said in a press release today.

"This will especially benefit kirana members who neither hold any credit/debit card nor have the time to visit banks for making RTGS payments. UPI is in addition to various other payment modes such as credit card, debit card, net banking and e-wallets that Walmart India offers to its members," it said.

The company's Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar said, "This initiative reiterates our commitment to enable small businesses, especially kiranas, prosper. This payment solution will help our members spend more time with their customers and serve them better as they do not have to step out of their stores to visit banks for making payments." Kumar said that with the expectation that the UPI system will boost online transactions, the initiative will certainly complement efforts to make India a digital economy. 

Meanwhile, Walmart reported much higher second-quarter sales and robust growth in its e-commerce businesses today, even as it reported a loss on one-time costs associated with selling a Walmart Brazil stake.

The world's biggest retailer scored its most robust jump in more than 10 years in US comparable store sales, sending shares sharply higher. But it reported an $861 million loss following pre-tax costs of $4.8 billion on the Brazil sales.

Walmart raised its financial outlook for the year after beating Wall Street's expectations for its fiscal second quarter and seeing the strongest growth in more than a decade in sales at established stores. 

The report is strong evidence that Walmart's efforts to improve the experience shoppers have at its stores and expand its online services, particularly in grocery, are helping bring people to its websites and stores. Like many other retailers, Walmart is also benefiting from a stronger job market and rising confidence.

Revenue at stores open at least a year rose 4.5 percent at Walmart's U.S. division, topping analysts' expectations for a 2.4 percent increase. 

The measure is a strong indicator of a retailer's health. The figure was helped by a more than 2 percent increase in customer traffic and in transactions. Online sales soared 40 percent, up from a 33 percent increase the previous quarter.