Walmart's Answer to Amazon? Its Own Web Mall.
The Wall Street Journal* has recently posted an article about Walmart's response to Amazon's fast growth. Their goal is to implement higher-end fashion brands to their website so as to encourage shoppers of such taste to buy from them instead of Amazon, who has been doing so for years. Amazon was able to win over fashion brands such as Nike, Calvin Klein, Kate Spade and Levi Strauss. To follow through, changes are required by Walmart so as to compete with Amazon. Mr. Lore gives a few examples of what these are: "using blue branded boxes to ship walmart.com orders, redesigning the website and working on partnerships to gain access to more premium products". This latter change is where Lord & Taylor comes in. The deal struck between the two benefits L&T as much as Walmart since it permits "a boost in [their] web traffic at a time when fewer shoppers are visiting department stores.". This is also very important to L&T since their sales have dropped by "1.6% in the three months to July 29", so partnering up with Walmart means increase in visitors on the site which often means more sales made. The impending deal consists of Walmart allowing L&T a "dedicated space on its website" while L&T keep their own website open. Furthermore, shoppers buying at L&T will be aloud to pick up or return items at Walmart's stores. In full, the point of making this deal is so that Walmart can compete with Amazon vis-a-vis website sales since Walmart's e-commerce is growing rather slowly. However, it is obvious that this is the first of many more deals to come with other well-known fashion brands.
If we see it in a marketing aspect, this article is full of marketing related themes. First of all, we have Walmart's new online Marketing Strategy which we see through the combination of the target market and the marketing mix. The target market is obviously the shoppers of rather more expensive taste and the marketing mix consists of fashion-related goods being sold online directly through Walmart instead of passing through the name brand at a similar but cheaper price.
We also have Walmart "Evaluating Opportunities in the Changing Market Environment". Walmart realized years ago that with the internet becoming more and more advanced, they needed to keep up with the times and so they created their website. However, they recently realized that if they were going to make it in today's online shopping era, they needed to be able to compete against other online retail stores. The fact that Walmart is so known throughout the nation gives them an edge against smaller online retail stores, however it would seem that Amazon rules that part of the business. This is why they are teaming up with name brands so as to pose as a competitor to Amazon. Also, the fact that they are aware of their customer's needs, their weight in the retail world and what competitors they face, means that their research on their External Marketing Environment is well on point.
Forevermore, it is important to note that Walmart has a long way to go if it wants to reach Amazon's level of influence in the online retail store world. However, they do seem to be heading in the right direction.
- Alexandra Guirette -
* https://www.wsj.com/articles/wal-mart-nears-web-deal-with-lord-taylor-1508410801
If we see it in a marketing aspect, this article is full of marketing related themes. First of all, we have Walmart's new online Marketing Strategy which we see through the combination of the target market and the marketing mix. The target market is obviously the shoppers of rather more expensive taste and the marketing mix consists of fashion-related goods being sold online directly through Walmart instead of passing through the name brand at a similar but cheaper price.
We also have Walmart "Evaluating Opportunities in the Changing Market Environment". Walmart realized years ago that with the internet becoming more and more advanced, they needed to keep up with the times and so they created their website. However, they recently realized that if they were going to make it in today's online shopping era, they needed to be able to compete against other online retail stores. The fact that Walmart is so known throughout the nation gives them an edge against smaller online retail stores, however it would seem that Amazon rules that part of the business. This is why they are teaming up with name brands so as to pose as a competitor to Amazon. Also, the fact that they are aware of their customer's needs, their weight in the retail world and what competitors they face, means that their research on their External Marketing Environment is well on point.
Forevermore, it is important to note that Walmart has a long way to go if it wants to reach Amazon's level of influence in the online retail store world. However, they do seem to be heading in the right direction.
- Alexandra Guirette -
* https://www.wsj.com/articles/wal-mart-nears-web-deal-with-lord-taylor-1508410801
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