Wal-Mart has been operating under the wholesale format in India since 2007. The company's desire to enter India with supermarkets has been met with extreme opposition from small shopkeepers and political parties. India restricts global online retailers from selling their products directly to consumers.

The retailer this month promoted Latin America executive Fernando Madeira to chief executive officer of Walmart.com, the e-commerce division that’s leading the company’s battle against Amazon.com Inc. Online revenue accounts for less than 3 percent of the Bentonville, Arkansas-based group’s total sales.

Ruchi Sally, head of retail advisory, Mumbai, said that Wal-Mart’s e-commerce has a huge potential and its initiative may boost orders from hotels, hospitals and web-savvy businesses. Initially the services are available only in the cities where they have stores, but they can move forward by the launching of many outlets.

During the election campaign earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi indicated that he might loosen rules to allow foreign control in all kinds of e-commerce. This would allow operators who also sell their own inventory, as Wal-Mart does in the U.S. Any such changes in rules would present a future opportunity for the retailer, though the current focus is on growing the wholesale business, Iyer said.

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