When Walmart goes to war for retail dominance, it does not kid around about it. The last year has seen the nation’s once-largest retailer spend billions on web-based acquisitions (most notably its US$3 billion Jet.com buy), cut its prices (to the chagrin of its suppliers), add grocery pick-up and roll out Walmart Pay nationwide. And those are just the individual efforts — Walmart has also been all about playing nicely with others this year as well. Recently, Big Blue announced it is rolling out grocery delivery with Uber and installment loans (in a pilot) with Affirm.
But wait, Walmart had one more hit to sneak in under the buzzer this week — it will also be teaming up with Google to take on Amazon in the emerging world of voice shopping.
Google, starting in September, will offer hundreds of thousands of Walmart items via its voice-controlled Google Assistant, according to Walmart’s head of eCommerce, Marc Lore. He also noted that with the tie-in, Walmart will be offering the widest selection of any retailer on the platform.
Both giants have another giant they are hoping to take on, and maybe weaken some — Amazon.
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