Walmart to bring Murali Lanka as COO of India business

Walmart is said to be considering appointing Murali Lanka, an executive

at its US business, as the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of its India unit. Sources say that he is expected to take charge of store operations, sales, business development and marketing, and report to India Chief Executive Officer Krish Iyer.

Lanka was earlier a part of the US retail major’s founding team when it decided to join hands with Bharti Enterprises before parting ways last year. Walmart is aggressively pursuing its India plans, albeit through cash and carry route. Now the company has decided to introduce an e-commerce platform at all its stores, after it received a buoyant response to the service in Hyderabad and Lucknow. Through this service, buyers can simply choose products and place orders online to get them delivered at their doorstep across India.

In a recent media interaction, Iyer had said that Walmart plans to roll out the e-commerce option in the remaining 18 stores by January. Also the 50 newly planned stores would also have the online option. Plans of introducing mobile applications are also underway to serve the company’s customers better.