2018 saw the world's biggest e-commerce deal go through. US retail giant Walmart bought 77 percent in home-grown e-commerce giant Flipkart for a whopping $16 billion. Walmart, which has been confined to the cash and carry space in India, got access to the Indian B2C e-commerce segment through this deal. This deal valued Flipkart at about 20 billion dollars and completely changed the dynamics in the e-commerce market.

The India opportunity has been lucrative for many global giants who have been seeking to crack the online market. E-commerce players like Amazon, Flipkart and Paytm have pumped in millions of dollars to get better market share, acquire customers and seed new categories. Walmart's buyout of majority stake in Flipkart has raised the stakes in the e-commerce market and the aggression is only set to intensify.

For Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal, who founded Flipkart from a small house and grew it into a multi-million dollar e-commerce giant, 2018 has been an inflection point. The deal with Walmart has given Flipkart the much needed ammunition to take-on rival Amazon. And, the company is dreaming big.

"It is to be a global technology powerhouse ... the likes of Tencent and Alibaba in China and other companies in the US. With millions of people using services from ecommerce to payments and fintech. Delighting the millions of customers remains the aspiration," said Binny Bansal, co-founder and former group CEO, Flipkart, in an interview to CNBC-TV18 in November.

US retail giant Walmart is also eager to reap the benefits of the big India opportunity within the existing legal frameworks of the country. "When you look at our investment in India, I think the merits are strong. Walmart can add value to Indian society ... as you know we have been there for a long time. I really do think that whether it's the food supply chain... Walmart supporting Flipkart can make an even bigger difference to country and the government will see it that way," said Doug McMillon, CEO, Walmart earlier this year.

The deal faced opposition from small traders across the country, but eventually got the blessings of the anti trust regulator, The Competition Commission of India in August. This was when the companies started working out a roadmap to maximise synergies and share best practices.

Co-founder Sachin Bansal exited the company post the deal and left Binny Bansal in charge of operations. And despite fears that Walmart would dictate terms, Bansal insisted nothing had changed at Flipkart -- not in operations. "The good news with Walmart is there is no integration plan. Even with the Walmart deal, Flipkart will hold on to its operating model as a board-run company," said Binny Bansal.

However, in a surprising development, Binny Bansal also resigned from his post in November with immediate effect. The decision was taken by him after an independent investigation was done on behalf of Flipkart and Walmart into an allegation of serious personal misconduct. He had strongly denied the allegation. The company has recently reworked some senior management positions to give them access to newer and larger portfolios.

Walmart's acquisition meant Amazon, which had been courting Flipkart to increase its presence in the Indian e-commerce market and keep global rival Walmart at bay in one fell swoop, has had to rework its India strategy and ostensibly, eye a stronger presence in the offline retail space. In this, Amazon is banking on the stake it has picked up in department store chain Shoppers Stop and in Aditya Birla Group's retail chain 'More'. Amazon is also in talks with Kishore Biyani's Future Retail for a sub-10 percent stake. Expectations are that this deal could be closed in early 2019.

With this renewed aggression in the space, industry watchers are expecting 2019 to be watershed year for e-commerce in India.

First Published:Dec 20, 2018 11:28 AM IST