Just as Amazon Web Services is the profit center that powers much of Amazon’s other businesses, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon has been increasingly interested in expanding his company’s profit pools beyond its core retail business.
Starting Wednesday, small- and medium-sized retailers can purchase the technology Walmart has developed to allow shoppers to buy items online and pickup the purchases at the store. These businesses also will be able to add products to Walmart’s online marketplace with just a few clicks. To offer the suite of cloud-based services, Walmart has partnered with Adobe, which will sell the software through a subscription.
“When we started on the journey, Covid had just hit,” said Anshu Bhardwaj, vice president of technology strategy and commercialization at Walmart Global Technology. “We reaped the benefits of getting on this omnichannel journey early on.”
Walmart saw sales soar both online and in-store as the pandemic took hold. While some other retailers were forced to close stores to help contain the spread of Covid-19, Walmart was deemed an essential retailer and remained open. Some customers, looking to limit the time they spent inside stores, took advantage of Walmart’s buy online, pickup in store options. These developments accelerated the company’s e-commerce growth. The retailer’s online sales jumped 79% in the fiscal year ended Jan. 29, with its pickup and delivery sales up triple digits compared with the prior year.
