"The Indian e-commerce market is here to stay and grow. The frequency of purchases will increase," Vidhya Shankar, Executive Director, Grant Thornton India told PTI.On the planned Flipkart-Walmart deal that has already set the e-tailing space on fire, Shankar said the US-retail giant, flush with cash reserves, has a record of entering into areas and markets through acquisitions.He cited the example of Walmart's 2016 acquisition of e-commerce start up Jet.com to fight Amazon , as a case in point. "We expect Walmart to be in this journey with Flipkart (if the deal does goes through) for the long haul and the one where both parties join hands to bring respective expertise. Flipkart had undertaken a similar move earlier this year, following the closing of its Softbank-Microsoft-Ebay deal.The deal is also being watched closely as it will set the tone for consolidation in the sector in many ways. E-commerce is a capital-intensive play and companies like Flipkart and Amazon have pumped in billions of dollars towards marketing and setting up infrastructure like warehouses and logistic chains.Last year, Flipkart was engaged in discussions with Snapdeal for a possible merger but the talks fell through after smaller rival decided on charting its own independent path.

Source: Economic Times May 06, 2018 14:03 UTC