Following the $3 billion purchase of Jet.com and $1 billion investment in Amazon competitor Flipkart, Walmart is continuing its bid to boost online sales, this time by targeting customers’ feet with the $70 million purchase of shoe-tailer ShoeBuy.
Walmart announced Thursday that Jet.com had acquired Boston-based online shoe retailer ShoeBuy on Dec. 30.
The purchase is aimed at expanding Jet.com’s reach in consumers’ lives, including their closets.
Walmart says the deal will allow Jet to gain the experience of a “well-established ecommerce player in the footwear industry.” With the deal, ShoeBuy will operate as a standalone site, and current CEO Mike Sorabella and the company’s 200 employees will continue to be based in Boston.
ShoeBuy suppliers that are interested in expanding their consumer reach through selling on Jet will have that option.
The purchase is just the latest in Walmart’s push for online sales. In Aug. 2016, the retailer announced would officially acquire Jet.com.
A month later, the company made a $1 billion investment in India-Based Flipkart to take on Amazon overseas.
These types of purchases aren’t likely to stop anytime soon.
Jet co-founder and CEO Marc Lore told Recode in an interview that it was a “fair assumption” that the company and Walmart would pursue more of acquisitions of online retailers, likely in “categories where they are long-tail, high-martian products and harder-to-crack brands.”
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