In a proposed deal, Walmart would provide dedicated space on its website for the department store chain Lord & Taylor to sell its products. Although the agreement has not gone into effect, it appears to represent an effort by Walmart to diversify the offerings available through its e-commerce channel and thus to compete more effectively with Amazon. The website has logged increasing numbers of visitors lately, possibly due to the addition of several brands that Walmart purchased recently, such as Bonobos, ShoeBuy, and Jet. With the contributions of third-party sellers, Walmart now lists approximately 67 million products on its website. The addition of Lord & Taylor products would expand the offerings even further. Yet they still have a ways to go to catch up with Amazon; for example, whereas Walmart.com averages about 79 million monthly visitors, and Lord & Taylor’s own website brings in around 850,000, Amazon attracts about 160 million visitors each month.

Source: George Anderson, Retail Wire, October 20, 2017