India’s leading telecom service providers, has entered into a strategic tie-up with Walmart India, the wholly owned subsidiary of world’s largest retailer Walmart Stores Inc. This tie-up will enable business members of six Best Price Modern Wholesale stores, owned and operated by Walmart India, to make payments using M-Pesa from their mobile anywhere, anytime. The first-of-its-kind partnership with Walmart India, gives all its members, including small businesses such as kiranas/resellers, the benefit of sending money through their mobile phones instantly & securely and run their customer facing businesses more efficiently and in hassle-free manner.
As a part of this partnership, Vodafone M-Pesa will enable safe, secure and convenient transactions, making it easier for all its members in Lucknow, Amravati, Aurangabad, Hyderabad, Rajahmundry, Vijayawada and Guntur to make faster payments and help Walmart ensure timely delivery of goods.
Under this arrangement, when a Best Price store member based in any of these cities places an order with Walmart India, a Vodafone M-Pesa authorized agent will reach out to him/her and enable cash-in into his/her M-Pesa account. This will allow the member to make payments from his/her phone for the goods ordered from Walmart’s Best Price Cash & Carry store. After receiving a confirmation message, Walmart India will immediately dispatch goods to the member.
Speaking about the association, Suresh Sethi, Business Head –M-Pesa, Vodafone India said, “Vodafone has always been at the forefront in launching innovative products and services relevant to the needs of our customers. Vodafone M-Pesa is an innovative, safe and secure mobile wallet that enables complete suite of services like money transfer, bill payments, and recharge on the move from the mobile. We are delighted to extend M-Pesa offering to Walmart India across its six Best Price Modern Wholesale stores. We are confident that this association will go a long way in simplifying the payments process for Walmart India from the members, especially resellers based in secondary markets. Starting with pilots in Amravati and Lucknow, we have now extended it to members in Aurangabad, Hyderabad, Rajahmundry, Guntur and Vijayawada and we hope to extend it pan-India soon.”
Rajneesh Kumar, Vice-President and Head – Corporate Affairs, Walmart India, said: “We are very excited about this partnership with Vodafone M-Pesa. We are confident that our members, especially kiranas/resellers, will benefit due to the convenience of payment along with efficient delivery of quality products at their doorstep. We value our members and strive to give them an excellent shopping experience.”
Vodafone India provides customers with a new currency in the form of M-Pesa, the world renowned mobile wallet and money transfer service. Vodafone M-Pesa is an innovative, safe and secure mobile wallet enables complete suite of services like money transfer, bill payments, and recharge on the move from the mobile. It caters to all segments of the society, from the unbanked to the under banked and to the net-savvy and evolved customers. Today, with a pan-India distribution of over 90,000 agents and more than 3 million customers, Vodafone M-Pesa is the largest banking correspondent in the country and is playing a vital role in enabling financial inclusion and m-commerce.
About Vodafone India
Vodafone India is a fully owned subsidiary of Vodafone PLC, which is one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies. Making its entry into India in 2007, Vodafone today has built an ever growing, robust business in highly price sensitive and competitive market. Serving over 180 million customers, Vodafone provides innovative, customer friendly and differentiated products and services through a wide scale distribution and exclusive retail footprint – backed up with a modern, technologically advanced network for both voice and data.
Vodafone Business Services, the enterprise arm of Vodafone, provides total telecommunications solutions across both mobility and wireline platforms and enables Global Enterprises, National Corporates, SME’s and Government segments to communicate, collaborate and connect.
Vodafone India provides customers with a new currency in the form of M-Pesa, the world renowned mobile wallet and money transfer service. Vodafone M-Pesa brings the bank to the mobile and serves the needs of the unbanked and under banked, in a safe, fast and convenient manner. Today, with a pan-India distribution of over 90,000 agents and more than 3 million customers, Vodafone M-Pesa is the largest banking correspondent in the country and is playing a vital role in enabling financial inclusion and m-commerce.
With the advantage of its global expertise and knowledge of local markets, Vodafone India is well poised to significantly expand the Government’s capacity to deliver benefits and outcomes for citizens, governments and businesses. It endeavours to be a steadfast partner in the Government’s efforts towards Digital India
A value based organization; Vodafone is committed to achieving the highest standards of Health, Safety and Well-being for its employees and business partners. Sustainability is an integral part of the company’s mission and strategy and ‘Vodafone Cares’ is the platform to showcase initiatives under the pillars of education, environment and empowerment. The Vodafone Foundation, in turn, is committed to leveraging India’s pressing challenges using mobile technology, thus playing an important role in India’s digitization programme. Its activities focus on the 4M’s for empowering individuals – mHealth, mEducation, mAgriculture and mWomen.
Vodafone is one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies and provides a range of services including voice, messaging, data and fixed communications. Vodafone has mobile operations in 26 countries, partners with mobile networks in 55 more, and fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of 31st December, 2014, Vodafone has 444 million mobile customers and 11.8 million fixed broadband customers.
About Walmart India:
Wal-Mart India Private Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Walmart Stores Inc., the world’s leading retailer renowned for its efficiency and expertise in logistics, supply chain management and sourcing. Walmart India owns and operates 20 Best Price Modern Wholesale stores in 9 States across India. The first store opened in Amritsar in May 2009. The company plans to open 50 more stores by 2020.Walmart India launched B2B e-commerce (www.bestprice.in) in July 2014 and has currently extended to 18 Best Price stores.
The Best Price stores offer best prices with unmatched convenience, choice, quality and hygiene. The mission of Best Price is “Enabling businesses to prosper…every single member”. To enter and purchase from Best Price stores, it is mandatory to become a member. Members can belong to different business categories such as Resellers (‘Kirana Stores’); Offices and Institutions (O&I); and Hotels, Restaurants and Caterers (HoReCa). The assortment, service and store layout are customized to the specific needs of members who can walk into a Best Price store and source high quality products in quantities they need and at the time they require.
For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com