Already an eCommerce, as well as brick-and-mortar, giant, Wal-Mart upped the ante on their digital commerce bet acquiring an online retailer that focuses on an optimal user experience and offers a different customer base. Many analysts say the Jet.com acquisition was geared at competing with Amazon, although it may just be part of a long-term growth strategy that relies more on eCommerce retail while physical retail sales stay stagnate or decline.
Amazon grossed $88 billion in online sales in 2015, according to Internet Retailer, and has been first place on the Top 500 list for many years. Walmart, however, isn’t too many places behind, coming in at fourth on Internet Retailers list of the 500 largest e-retailers based on U.S. sales. Immediately after Walmart’s $3.3 billion investment in Jet.com was announced, many retail analysts voiced their opinion that this acquisition was made so the nation’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer could keep up with the largest online retailer, Amazon. But there’s more to the story than that.
