Walmart to sell ecommerce tech to other retailers – TechCrunch



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Walmart’s investments in retail software and technologies that it has used to transform its business from a physical one to one that combines both in-person and online shopping will now be made available to customers. ‘other first-time retailers, the company announced today. Through a strategic partnership with Adobe, Walmart will integrate Walmart’s marketplace access, along with its various online and in-store fulfillment and pickup technologies, into the Adobe Commerce platform.

The technologies will be made available to Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source customers, Adobe said.

The deal will allow Walmart to potentially reach thousands of small and midsize retailers, who can effectively tap into the same tools that one of the world’s largest retailers uses to run their business.

Through this partnership, Adobe retail customers will be able to do things like show in-store pickup eligibility and available online pickup times; offer several pickup options such as curbside and in-store pickup; provide their in-store associates with mobile tools to select orders, validate item selections and manage substitutions; and use tools to communicate with customers about their pickup orders, like those where customers can alert store associates of their ETA or their arrival for a curbside pickup.

Another aspect of the partnership will allow retailers to syndicate and sell their products in the Walmart Marketplace.

The deal not only aims to benefit Walmart’s bottom line as it offers new revenue streams related to retail tech, it could also serve as another tool in Walmart’s battle with Amazon for retail dominance. retail online.

Retail businesses will use the Adobe Commerce platform to reach a broader set of customers by listing products on Walmart’s marketplace, then leverage Walmart’s order fulfillment services to deliver two-day shopping to states. -United.

And that, in turn, could increase the number of available products sold in the Walmart Marketplace, which is still largely eclipsed by Amazon.

Walmart’s market had grown to around 70,000 sellers by 2020, fueled by a surge in online shopping triggered by the pandemic, according to third-party estimates. This has more than doubled from 2019. Today, the market exceeds 100,000 sellers, by Marketplace Pulse data. Amazon’s marketplace, on the other hand, has around 6.3 million total sellers worldwide, of which 1.5 million are currently active, according to estimates.

Part of Walmart’s problem in scaling its marketplace operations could be related to its ease of use on the sellers side. Many small sellers reported that Walmart’s Marketplace is much more difficult to use than Amazon’s, and they complained that they waited months to hear from Walmart to see if they were allowed to sell on. the platform.

Adobe’s partnership could help address some of these challenges.

Adobe also notes that it is working to consolidate its other channel solutions into a single unified extension that would allow its retail customers to sell across multiple sales channels, including Amazon, using one tool. integrated for easy account setup and catalog syndication.

This is the first time Walmart has made its retail technologies available to other companies, the company said. And he has yet to predict what kind of revenue the new partnership could generate. But it’s a path Amazon has also followed in recent years to maximize the ROI of its new retail innovations, like its AI and computer vision. Just Walk Out powered system that allows customers to skip the line.

“The core mission of helping people save money and live better lives is at the heart of every idea, including Scan & Go and payment technologies, AI-powered smart substitutions, and pickup and drop. delivery, ”said Suresh Kumar, chief technology officer and chief development officer of Walmart Inc., in a statement. “By combining the strength of Adobe in energizing business experiences with our unmatched omni-client expertise, we can accelerate the digital transformations of other businesses,” he said.

Adobe retail customers in the United States will be able to integrate Walmart’s technologies into their own storefronts starting in early 2022, the companies said. Pricing and other details will be provided closer to launch.

While today’s announcement is for distribution partner Adobe, which will help resell the technologies, Walmart also has a GoToMarket team that will target retailers directly.

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