Walmart is
big! really big! So just how big? Well for starters they are the world’s
largest retailer with just under a half trillion dollars in total revenue in
2016. Want some more ridiculously large stats? Try 2.2 million employees or
roughly the same number as china’s standing army. What about space? Try 770
Million square feet or just under twelve thousand football fields that’s a lot
of punting space. So it was kind of a big deal when Walmart bought Jet.com last
year for a cool $3 Billion dollars. So why would the world’s largest retailer do
this? It was a pretty big investment in a relatively new site. Sure a good
concept but proven track record? No not really Jet.com was sold just after a
year in business. Maybe it’s not so much a purchase of the company for the
business model but for the customers this base of online shoppers that Walmart
may not be reaching despite having more than 7000 locations. Walmart since the
Jet.com purchase has also been grabbing up other online retailers as well as
niche market manufacturers but the pattern always seems to be expanding the
customer base and increasing their internet presence. Amazon I hope you are
paying attention… Why Amazon in particular? Well because they have the most to
lose from another mammoth player in the online marketplace but it’s much more
than that. Walmart is also copying Amazon’s business model by using third party
sellers to expand their offerings on Walmart.com. The third party market is
still very young and undeveloped but the potential is massive. If successful
who’s to say that Walmart won’t take another page from Amazon’s Playbook and
offer fulfillment by Walmart their big competitor Amazon makes a lot of money storing,
packing and shipping merchandise. With 7000 locations couldn’t Walmart figure
out a good way to ship anything anywhere fast and cheap? So is it time to start
selling on Walmart.com? Can you get in and is it worth it? Hard to say because
it is still so new but it would not hurt to apply. Walmart has strict seller
standards they do not want just any seller but if you do get in the potential
benefits can be quite appealing. Great site traffic number 4 in the US, much
less competition from other marketplace sellers and its Walmart so tons of ad
dollars are going into driving more traffic to the site. Walmart may not be
number one on the web but if anyone can potentially give Amazon a run for its
money its Walmart.