Dive Brief:
- As consumers continue to shop across online and physical stores, Walmart will soon offer the pickup and delivery capabilities it has developed to thousands of small and mid-sized businesses.
- To offer the service bundle, the retailer entered a strategic partnership with Adobe, according to Walmart's press release Wednesday. Through Adobe Commerce, retailers and brands can use Walmart's cloud-based services to access Walmart Marketplace (where 2-day shipping is available), online and in-store fulfillment as well as pickup capabilities.
- Adobe's U.S. retail customers can get access to Walmart's omnichannel technology starting in early 2022, according to Adobe's blog post Tuesday. Neither Walmart nor Adobe disclosed the cost of Walmart's services.
Dive Insight:
In addition to its goal of winning consumers' spending dollars, it seems the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer is now attempting to take a slice of the business-to-business market by way of offering services.
"We've built new capabilities to serve the evolving needs of our own customers, and we have a unique opportunity to use our experience to help other businesses do the same," John Furner, chief executive officer of Walmart U.S., said in a statement. "Commercializing our technologies and capabilities helps us sustainably reinvest back into our customer value proposition."
With the help of its robust omnichannel fulfillment services, Walmart's revenue for the fiscal year rose 6.7% to $559.2 billion, with e-commerce up 79%. Instead of gatekeeping the technology it has developed, Walmart is leveraging it as a new source of revenue.
"Combining Adobe's strength in powering commerce experiences with our unmatched omni-customer expertise, we can accelerate other companies' digital transformations," Suresh Kumar, chief technology officer and chief development officer of Walmart, said in a statement.
In recent years, Walmart has been moving away from traditional retail by selling more than just merchandise at its stores — setting the stage to becoming a more comprehensive one-stop shop.
For instance, Walmart has recently been inching closer to providing financial services. It announced plans to debut a fintech startup with Ribbit Capital earlier this year and has reportedly tapped two senior bankers from Goldman Sachs to operate it. Walmart has also claimed its stake in the health market by opening 100 in-store veterinary clinics and has been expanding its Walmart Health center concept that launched in 2019.
