Amazon is on a collision course with Walmart, according to a recent article by the Wharton School of Business.
The article questions which giant will be standing and claim the prize of the “everything store” in an omni-channel world — where consumers no longer distinguish between shopping online and offline?
Amazon is threatening Walmart with its purchase of Whole Foods since 65% of Walmart’s U.S. sales comes from food and grocery sales. Amazon now adds Whole Foods to its other food operations: Amazon Fresh, Prime Now, Prime Pantry, Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh Pickup.
Barbara Kahn, director of Wharton’s Jay H. Baker Retailing Center, points out that as Amazon adds offline capabilities, Walmart is acquiring digital talent. And the digital talent bench will deepen further with Bonobos’ millennial CEO Andy Dunn coming on board. “They’re going to be figuring out how to put all this together. It’s kind of a brand new world. You’re talking about really reinventing retail.”
Even though retail might be transforming “offline retail is absolutely not dead. Offline retail is just going to look different in the future, ” explains David Bell, a marketing professor at Wharton.
Bell says that in an omni-channel matchup, Amazon has the advantage over Walmart.
To find out why read the full article.
