With India's e-commerce industry projected to balloon to $22 billion in the next five years, American retail giant Walmart is planning to establish an e-commerce marketplace in the country to tap into that market, according to TechCrunch.

Walmart has been trying to penetrate the Indian market via offline retail, to no avail. The Indian government also does not allow foreign investment in the online retail sector. After a couple of failed attempts, the US firm finally decided to build an e-commerce marketplace and has already put together a professional team to work on the project, the report explained.

The Economic Times cited a Walmart India spokesperson saying: "Our experiences worldwide support the fact that ecommerce is an important and growing area that meets our customers' shopping needs. Toward this, we encourage the government of India to consider opening ecommerce for FDI."

India is already thinking about scrapping the said ban in e-commerce investment. The marketplace will give Walmart an early lead in the industry when foreign investments are finally allowed in, TechCrunch reported.