One of the principles of the still-in-progress omnicommerce handbook is that, in an ideal world, inventory is a fluid commodity that flows across channels as easily as revenue does into retailers’ pockets. That’s obviously not always the case, and Walmart is seeing what happens if it breaks that rule in a major way.
Fortune is reporting that Walmart has undertaken a new initiative to offer more luxury goods made by third-party brands on its online marketplace, even though it has no plans to offer those same products in its stores. Walmart reportedly added products from 100 third-party brands in May, followed by another 150 in June. This comes on top of an additional pledge to add 1 million products to its online offerings every month, which currently stand at about 11 million in total. That’s well above the 150,000 found in a typical Walmart brick-and-mortar store, but still several times less than Amazon’s 260 million-strong catalog.
Still, Walmart is aware that, if shoppers can’t find what they’re looking for at its stores, they might go somewhere else and never come back.
“It’s important that customers, when they come to Walmart.com or use our app, find what they’re looking for, so we need to have a broader assortment,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said at a press briefing on Walmart’s product expansions in June.
It’ll be a while before Walmart can hope to rival Amazon’s exhaustive product catalog, but the journey of a thousand page views begins with a single click.
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