Internet Retailer reports that Walmart has added 250 new merchants to its Walmart Marketplace, "quickly expanding its product assortment thanks to a growing number of outside merchants that sell on its website and app." Walmart is said to now have relationships with about 600 merchants.
The goal of the Marketplace is to compete effectively with Amazon's Marketplace - which has roughly two million merchants selling on it.
The story notes that Walmart "began in 2009 allowing merchants to sell products alongside the retail chain’s own inventory on Walmart.com. Wal-Mart has developed its online marketplace slowly, starting with six merchants and in 2014 expanding its roster. In April, the retail giant made its first real push to invite many more merchants to its site after a long trial period that allowed Wal-Mart to rebuild its technology to support more sellers and more SKUs online."
The goal of the Marketplace is to compete effectively with Amazon's Marketplace - which has roughly two million merchants selling on it.
The story notes that Walmart "began in 2009 allowing merchants to sell products alongside the retail chain’s own inventory on Walmart.com. Wal-Mart has developed its online marketplace slowly, starting with six merchants and in 2014 expanding its roster. In April, the retail giant made its first real push to invite many more merchants to its site after a long trial period that allowed Wal-Mart to rebuild its technology to support more sellers and more SKUs online."
- KC's View:
-
Amazon's Marketplace always has been - and, based on the numbers, continues to be - an enormous advantage. Walmart is right to move in this direction, but the distance between 600 and 2,000,000 is vast.
In the end, I think, it won't just be tough for Walmart to make up the distance between the two companies, but may be just as hard to adjust its culture to accept the notion that other retailers' success is important to its own.
