U.S. retail giant Costco Wholesale is establishing its first technology centre in India, selecting Hyderabad as the base for its Global Capability Centre (GCC), Reuters news report said. The new centre will focus on technology development and research, supporting global operations.
The centre is expected to begin with a workforce of 1,000 and scale up over time, underscoring Costco’s strategic move to deepen its in-house tech capabilities and leverage India’s talent pool.
India’s GCC landscape has matured from being a low-cost outsourcing model to playing a critical role in global firms’ core operations, including R&D, finance, and innovation. Hyderabad has increasingly become a GCC hub, hosting global names like McDonald’s, Heineken, and Vanguard, while Bengaluru remains a key location for JPMorgan Chase, Walmart, and Target.
According to Nasscom and Zinnov, India’s GCC market is poised to grow from $64.6 billion in FY2024 to as much as $105 billion by 2030, driven by continued investments from multinational corporations aiming to scale innovation and digital transformation.
Costco Wholesale has recently formed several technology partnerships to enhance its operations across travel, retail media, checkout, and global technology support. Costco Travel entered a multi-year partnership with Travelport to modernize its online travel offerings, gaining access to APIs, retail-ready flight content, and AI-powered search features. It also deployed Mystifly’s SSP platform to deliver Hawaiian Airlines’ exclusive NDC content to its members, allowing for more personalized and dynamic pricing options.
In retail media, Costco partnered with Boostr to implement a CRM and order-management system aimed at scaling digital ad operations, improving forecasting, automating workflows, and centralizing advertiser data. Another key partnership with Yahoo DSP allows advertisers to access Costco’s first-party member data and deliver targeted, privacy-compliant ad campaigns using Yahoo’s ConnectID solution.
On the in-store technology front, Costco is piloting a Scan & Pay system developed with Instacart. This feature enables customers to scan items via their smartphones and complete purchases faster, streamlining checkout and mirroring Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go system. Additionally, Executive Members in the U.S. and Canada now receive a monthly delivery credit for orders placed through Costco’s Instacart-powered same-day delivery service.
InfotechLead.com News Desk
