After years of seeing Amazon taking market share on in the media product categories, Walmart has finally decided to react and boost its e-commerce capabilities. However, you do not turnaround a $419bn retailer, actually the biggest retailer worldwide, in a day. This might require up to 25 years, according to Walmart’s executives.
The first move was in April 2011 when Walmart acquired Kosmix, a Silicon Valley’s startup with a deep expertise in search algorithms. Walmart used Kosmix to start WalmartLabs, an entrepreneurial structure in charge of bringing new ideas to the table to enhance the digital experience for customers.
The first step was to rebuild Walmart’s search algorithm for the e-commerce website. Then, some very innovative concepts have been tested like Shopycat, a gift recommendation tool. People can log in on Walmart’s website and the application is able to create gift recommendations in Walmart’s product inventories based on their social activity on-line.
Today, the goal of Walmart is not copy Amazon but to build on its key competitive advantages, especially stores. The idea is to rethink the entire shopping experience by integrating web, mobile and physical stores capabilities. It might take time but the company certainly has tremendous assets, especially in logistics and cash, to build a new and enhanced way of “shopping Walmart”.
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