Carrefour to Enter India (edited to add stuff)

Carrefour is looking to enter the Indian market:

Moneycontrol India :: News :: Carrefour to enter India soon :: :: Business :: Carrefour,Kamal Nath,Wadia,Britannia,Danone,WalMart,Bharti

This may be the deciding point for WalMart -- can they really make it in the international market. Of course, it's not only Carrefour they have to worry about; British chain Tesco is also planning on entering the Indian market.

Here's a big problem, though, for all of the Western chains. India has several big retail chains already. Also, distribution channels in India are nor the same. There seems to be much more reliance on smaller neighborhood / village stores and street vendors, something which the Indian chains seem to be able to accomodate. And, Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited has no plans to roll over and play dead !

A second issue, and one that could keep all of these companies out, is the legal / political climate. Basically, India isn't very welcoming to foreign direct investment, despite 15 years of efforts by some (but not all) Indian political groups to make foreign investors welcome. Walmart isn't giving up, though, and they may be able to bring political pressure to bear from the US government.

Added:

Lejoyi has an interesting angle here.....(as well as an extra credit point)

As we talked about with culture, there definitely does seem to be an Islamic backlash against what's perceived as the encroachment of Western secular values -- Mecca Cola, the Islamic Barbie, and any number of retailers of modest clothing styled for Western sensibilities.

And as for WalMart [and we'll talk more about this when we get to marketing], they just don't seem to have really "gotten it" when they've gone international. Especially in Germany, it was failing to understand cultural differences that sunk them.

Out of curiosity, I googled WalMart and a handful of major Islamic countries. I did come up with a recent rumor that WalMart is planning on entering Malaysia. They're also beginning to establish ties with a lot of Turkish manufacturing firms. I'd think that Turkey would be a good place for Walmart to expand their retail presence, a thought I found some confirmation for (though Carrefour has been in Turkey since 1993, with 539 stores, so maybe it isn't such a good idea...).

As for India.....

While there is a significant Muslim minority in India (13.4%), it's going to be Hindu values and Indian customs that WalMart will have trouble with. For an example of a Western company having some success in India, see McDonald's, oddly enough.