Dive Brief:
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Walmart has revamped its website and mobile app once again, saying in a company blog post Monday that both are now easier and more enjoyable to navigate.
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Tom Ward, chief e-commerce officer at Walmart U.S., emphasized the retail giant’s “endless aisles” online are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year.
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Its third-party seller marketplace is “thriving” and “continues to expand,” Ward also said.
Dive Insight:
Walmart in recent weeks has laid off hundreds of workers at key e-commerce facilities across the country, in part because it’s fulfilling more online orders from stores. Its announcements Monday indicate that the retailer sees room to grow in e-commerce.
The retail giant has periodically boasted about ongoing enhancements to its mobile app and website. In September, Ward noted that both were “easier, more engaging and more personalized,” while in December Dominique Essig, vice president of conversational commerce at the company’s Store No8 tech division, wrote about a new ability to shop via text.
Online shopping has long been, as Ward notes, “Open 24/7/365,” but these announcements are not necessarily meant to imply that Walmart is breaking new ground, according to Rick Watson, founder and CEO of RMW Commerce Consulting. Rather, it’s a reminder to customers that Walmart is not just an omnipresent brick-and-mortar retail giant, but also a major online shopping destination that rivals Amazon. The site at press time was touting seasonal springtime and Easter deals, with a push toward the Walmart+ membership.
While the site and app may be improved, the upgrades are probably more obvious to those working at Walmart than those shopping there, Watson said by phone. But it’s clear that Walmart is looking to stoke its online sales.
“Now, unlike five years ago, Walmart e-commerce is growing faster than Amazon,” Watson said. “So the fact that they're investing more in their website and marketplace would be consistent with that.”
Walmart’s Q4 online sales rose 17% year over year, while Amazon’s online retail sales in the comparable period fell 2.3%.
