Thursday, April 19, 2018

Engadget: Walmart will roll out a cleaner, sleeker Website in May

Engadget: Walmart will roll out a cleaner, sleeker Website in May
https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/17/walmart-redesign/

Walmart has been firing warning shots towards Amazon since the acquisition of Jet - and Marc Lore - almost two years ago.  The rivalry between Lore and Bezos is well documented in the tech world.  Since Amazon's acquisition - and subsequent killing - of Diapers.com, Lore has been seeking for opportunities to let Bezos know he's not the ultimate retailer.  The new Walmart offers the perfect opportunity for Lore to showcase his thinking. Walmart has been making a series of incremental technology and operations changes to Walmart.com and Jet, but it hasn't substantially altered the experience of Walmart.com.  The new Walmart website will not only be a design refresh - presumably a truly mobile first experience - but it was also building on its marketplace strategy. Retailers including Lord & Taylor and Fanatics will launch stand-alone digital store-within-store concepts on the platform.  The expression of these marketplace storefronts is going to be telling.  Will it be a proxy of Amazon where third-party retailers are largely obscured or will it be like TMall where brand storefronts are branded experience?

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