Lore Keeps Growing Walmart's E-Com Family

Walmart is reportedly in the final stages of closing on its purchase of Bonobos, a decade-old men's fashion retailer based in New York. The deal would be the latest in a slew of e-commerce acquisitions led by Walmart digital chief Marc Lore since the retailer acquired his Jet.com company last year.Speaking at ShopTalk in April, Lore said that he made the decision to sell Jet.com to Walmart in order to to accelerate his company's trajectory toward his vision. "We were able to build a lot of trust early on with chief executive officer Doug McMillon," Lore said, explaining that he and his team were empowered to "basically run all of Walmart's e-commerce business." Lore has approached each of his subsequent acquisitions in the same way, giving every incoming ceo responsibility not only for their brand but for the entire related category across all of walmart.com. "What was a certain side business now overnight becomes that much bigger and they are able to leverage a larger scale," Lore said, indicating that the empowerment is the key to the acquisition strategy.Bonobos sells dress pants, shirts, suits and outerwear tailored to fit athletic men. In addition to its online storefront, Bonobos sells through Nordstrom, which is an investor, and has opened more than 30 brick-and-mortar showrooms where shoppers can get fitted and place orders to be delivered to their home.The company would join women's online retailer ModCloth, outdoor gear seller MooseJaw and online shoe shop ShoeBuy (which also recently scooped up the web address of defunct online footwear retailer shoes.com) in Walmart's stable of digital-native, standalone retail brands that appeal to various demographics. With dress shirts starting at around $98, suits starting at $550, and annual revenue of more than $100 million, Bonobos is expected to command the biggest price tag of all the recent acquisitions.The deals are intended to quickly expand Walmart's online offerings and bring new digital leadership to the long-time leader of physical retail as it positions itself for an extended battle online.To that end, Walmart also is forming an internal hub meant to foster relationships with entrepreneurs and e-commerce innovation. Dubbed Store No. 8, the hub will nurture online startups and identify more acquisition targets. Co-founder of Rent the Runway Jenny Fleiss will run the hub's first startup; dubbed code eight, it will focus on developing personalized, one-to-one shopping experiences."There's a lot of innovation happening within the company now, but as a public company there's definitely a focus in the near term," Lore said when announcing the initiative at ShopTalk. That's why the startups will "think bigger" with "responsibility to change the course of retail — technological innovation — five or 10 years out."

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