HIGHLIGHTS — Walmart is making financial news this week after the mega-retailer sold its stake in JD.com, Inc., a Chinese e-commerce company, ending an eight-year partnership between the two companies.
According to several news sources, including Reuters and Bloomberg, Walmart raised about $3.6 billion from the sale of its stake in the company. Reuters reports that JD.com’s Hong Kong-listed shares closed nearly 9 percent lower on Wednesday, while its U.S.-listed shares lost 5 percent in midday trading. Walmart shares rose 0.6 percent on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
Bloomberg reports that the sale will allow Walmart to “better focus on its strong development in the country,” including Sam’s Club and its hypermarket business, and “allocate funds to other priorities.” In the report, Walmart said it will continue to work with JD.com, calling the company a “valuable partner.”
Adaptive retail strategy
The antithesis of the post-sale e-commerce discussion appears to be the State of Adaptive Retail report released by Walmart and Morning Consult in late July, which identified four key trends that could provide insight into retailer strategy around “different priorities” and potential blending of online and in-store experiences.
While the rate of adoption of this mixed retail strategy varies among consumers across categories from grocery to furniture, the study identifies trends that underscore the ongoing and increasing synergy between physical and digital retail environments, including the prediction that consumers are becoming more “channel agnostic.”
According to the report, “Customers are adopting new retail channels at different paces across all categories. Apparel has the highest proportion of mixed online and in-store purchases, while most groceries, furniture and outdoor items are still purchased exclusively in-store. Regardless of the channel, shoppers’ core values of price, quality and trust continue to matter.”
The report also states: “As consumers become more comfortable with technology-enabled decisions, they are becoming more channel agnostic. Early technology adopters and Generation Z – pioneers of innovative offerings – already shop for general merchandise relatively evenly across channels.”
The “innovative offerings” require equally innovative solutions, as the report shows that consumers want the in-store shopping experience to match the online experience and vice versa.
According to the report, when shopping online, respondents want to “receive items immediately (48%), browse and touch and feel items (47%), and preview or try the product before purchasing (41%).” In-store, these respondents want “no lines at checkout (45%), the ability to shop 24/7 (42%), and the ability to easily search for all available items or stock (28%).”
There’s a lot of talk about how to get consumers to buy, whether in-store or online. But Walmart’s stock sale with the announcement that it will use the funds for other priorities is just as notable as the steps the company is taking to serve consumers who are increasingly comfortable with both brick-and-mortar and online retail. With billions of dollars just made available to support these efforts, the next steps could actually be a harbinger of future innovations.
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