sunshine05rose
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Wal-Mart
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Retailers looking to build "the Wal-Mart of the Web," take note: Daddy's home!
Wal-Mart built a retailing empire on whip-smart inventory management and savvy distribution logistics. Do the same principles make for success online? The coming year will tell as the sultan of superstores hoists its $137 billion operation onto the Web.
Hoping to prod a stampede of bargain-hungry shoppers, in December Wal-Mart joined with America Online to create an inexpensive ISP for newbies. Another strategic partnership, a collaboration between Oracle, Chevron, and McLane (Wal-Mart's $8.8 billion wholesale division), will create a B2B marketplace for convenience stores. To build the momentum, in March the company brought in a Web-savvy CEO, Jeanne Jackson, late of Banana Republic and the architect of that company's Web presence as well as those of the Gap and Old Navy. Meanwhile, the revamped Wal-Mart.com is the very model of a user-friendly online shopping experience, complete with Wal-Mart Travel and a Photo Center that displays snapshots developed through Wal-Mart's brick-and-mortar locations.
The fate of Wal-Mart.com comes down to the question of which is more valuable: understanding technology or understanding consumers. The former is critical, but the latter is in shorter supply. Wal-Mart has it in spades.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.06/wired_index_pr.html |
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