As Walmart continues to focus on technology to hold off competition from e-commerce giants such as Amazon, they have hired 1000 more people for technology roles in India.
According to the Economic Times of India, Walmart has technology operations in Bengaluru and Gurgaon and currently has about 1,800 employees. The company is looking at expanding this headcount and driving more product ownership out of India.
Walmart chief information officer Clay Johnson told ET that “We have Walmart Labs, which is e-commerce. You have My Group which is global business services. We are trying to be more product-oriented. We have taken whole projects and moved them over to drive the Indian ownership of the product. We think that is helping but this will help even more (in retaining talent).”
Analysts says that Walmart is one of the largest spenders of technology and the company counts almost every IT service provider as a client. However, with increasing competition in the e-commerce industry and with competitors like Amazon, Walmart is ensuring that they are spending on more digital offerings.
“The way that the spend(ing) has changed is that we are focused on how to use it to drive our competitive advantage. We don’t just want to be the largest technology spender. We want to make sure that we are spending it on the right technology,” Johnson said. He also added that they are working with a few Indian IT services providers to co-innovate solutions. They also want to prove that they have the ability to make changes to the way they work.