Why Amazon Should Worry About Walmart’s Site Redesign

Walmart
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early last week unveiled its redesigned website and app, which immediately drew comparisons to Amazon
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.com.

Tom Ward, chief e-commerce officer at Walmart U.S., writes on a company blog that the retailer has made “hundreds of enhancements” over the past year to improve the shopping experience for the chain’s customers.

Walmart’s new homepage features bigger photos, live video and a “social-inspired scroll so customers can browse our selection just as they’d scroll their favorite social media apps,” writes Mr. Ward.

“These changes, in conjunction with the Walmart Creator platform, will improve product discovery and take steps out of the purchase process,” wrote Patricia Vekich Waldron, CEO of Vision First, in an online discussion about the redesign last week on RetailWire. “It will absolutely improve the experience for existing core and casual customers, and potentially offer an alternative to dissatisfied Amazon shoppers.”

Some of Ms. Waldron’s fellow members of the RetailWire BrainTrust were likewise convinced that a solid redesign stands to make Walmart more formidable in e-commerce against the incumbent e-tail juggernaut in a number of different ways.

“The new website and app will make consumers take the Walmart Marketplace more seriously as an alternative to, or an augmentation of, the Amazon Marketplace,” wrote David Naumann, marketing strategy lead, retail, travel & distribution at Verizon. “Walmart has aggressively added more sellers to its marketplace and now with a better user experience, it is a strong rival for Amazon.”

The newly redesigned website is intended to make it easier for customers to find the products they need and want from Walmart and its growing network of marketplace sellers. The redesign will also benefit suppliers and third-party sellers with “new opportunities to showcase more relevant products and better tell their stories,” according to Mr. Ward.

A Fast Company article says that Walmart’s redesign comes when some Amazon customers may feel disaffected by increases in Prime subscription fees and grocery delivery charges. Walmart also offers product search results that are not cluttered with a long list of sponsored products at the top.

An article on The Verge also claims that Walmart has an opportunity to grab disgruntled customers from Amazon. Walmart.com’s new look, it asserts, offers shoppers more access to products connected to the current season and upcoming holidays or events. The report also highlights the site’s search function, which “yields several rows of products matching your search that you can scroll through horizontally.”

Walmart has been on a multi-year mission to improve its digital operations and create seamless shopping experiences regardless of the point of fulfillment. The chain offers customers the option of express, next-day and two-day delivery as well as in-store and curbside pickup.

By one BrainTrust member’s account, the digital revamp was gaining traction even before the website and app redesigns.

“I downloaded the Walmart app about a year ago when I got frustrated with an Amazon search,” wrote Jeff Sward, founding partner at Merchandising Metrics. “I quickly found the product I was looking for and it was delivered two days later. The ‘out for delivery’ and ‘delivery completed’ emails were timely and accurate. I have since been drawn into the Walmart universe to buy groceries, tools, storage containers and even a work shirt for chopping firewood. I used to visit Walmart as homework for my retail research. I’m now a shopper and buyer and it’s a direct result of a great website and app experience.”

Others on the BrainTrust, however, held that a redesign should be seen as table stakes, no matter what Amazon is up to.

“More retailers are focusing on making digital experiences discovery-oriented, versus simplistic and mission-driven,” wrote Melissa Minkow, director of retail strategy at C&T. “I think this is a great move for Walmart, but I don’t know that it would be the variable that steals customers from Amazon.”

“The description of Walmart’s website efforts sounds like they are moving in a direction the online customer responds to,” wrote Professor Gene Detroyer. “I hope that is the objective. To suggest that they are doing it to grab disaffected Prime members is inaccurate. Hopefully all the decisions were made to design a better website, as they should be doing regularly–with or without Amazon’s competition.”