Wal-Mart to set up e-commerce R&D centre in Bangalore

US-based retail giant Wal-Mart is setting up a research and software development centre in Bangalore through its new social media arm WalmartLabs to develop technologies and solutions for its global e-commerce business, the company said on Wednesday.

WalmartLabs is a part of Wal-Mart's global e-commerce division, and is the company's hub for creating technologies and businesses in social and mobile commerce for global shoppers. The move underscored Walmart's drive for technology innovation in powering the next generation of e-commerce.

"We think there is a fundamental change happening in the way people shop, driven by smart phones and social media," Anand Rajaraman, senior vice president of global e-commerce operations, said at a conference in Bangalore. "This new way of shopping will blur the lines between e-commerce and offline retail shopping."

The company plans to hire up to 100 developers in its new unit. ''WalmartLabs India will be a strong and talent-dense base for us, and we are looking for developers who want to push the envelope to change the world of e-commerce,'' Rajaraman said.

Wal-Mart entered into a retail joint venture with India's Bharti Enterprises in August 2007, and currently operates 13 wholesale cash-and-carry stores in partnership with Bharti. Globally, over 200 million visits are made to Wal-Mart stores across 28 countries each week.

New technologies generated from WalmartLabs would help it eliminate boundaries between brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce to give shoppers a seamless experience anywhere and on any device, the company said.