SEO Blog • Organic SEO Blog Search Marketing News

Wal-Mart Sets Outside Offerings in Online Mall

By The Wall Street Journal

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., borrowing a page from Amazon.com Inc., Monday began offering merchandise from lesser-known retailers on its Web site in exchange for a share of the revenue.

The world's largest retailer by revenue said it added nearly one million new items to Walmart.com from other sellers as part of a new online mall, known as Walmart Marketplace.

Wal-Mart customers can purchase the products through Walmart.com, but Wal-Mart never touches the merchandise: its partners ship from their sites and handle exchanges and returns.

"Our vision is to make Walmart.com the most visited and valued online site," said Kerry Cooper, Walmart.com's chief marketing officer. Terms of the agreements weren't disclosed.

The move is part of an emerging effort by retailers to embrace the techniques that have made e-commerce companies such as Amazon and eBay Inc. successful. Adding outside merchants allows Walmart.com to considerably widen the range of products it sells, without taking on additional inventory.

Scot Wingo, one of the many keynote speakers of the night said, "Even the mega players can only manage so much selection". Scot Wingo, is the chief executive of Channel Advisor, a company that advises retailers on selling across a variety of Web sites.

Other traditional retailers have similar alliances, including Sears Holdings Corp., which began selling 130,000 Whitney Automotive Group auto parts last year through Sears.com.

Early participants in Wal-Mart's online mall include CSN Stores LLC, an online retailer that sells through websites such as Cookware.com, and Dreams Inc., which sells sports apparel through StarStruck.com.

Wal-Mart.com's expansion isn't likely to shake up the industry. But it could signal the arrival of new marketplaces from traditional online retailers and perhaps even social-networking and search sites.