Walmart has bought a handful of startups lately, and the company says this acquisition spree will continue.
It’s looking to buy businesses in the technology, retail and digital native brands categories, said Marc Lore, CEO of Walmart eCommerce U.S., onstage at WSJ D.Live in Laguna Beach on Tuesday.
The Jet.com founder joined Walmart through an acquisition last year when Walmart paid more than $3 billion for the fast-growing startup. Since then, it’s gone on to purchase ShoeBuy, Moosejaw, Bonobos, Parcel, Hayneedle and ModCloth.
“Specialist positioning is better than mass,” said Lore about the strategy. “We’ve empowered the leaders of these companies to basically run the category across the entire entity.”
Lore also spoke about competition with Amazon, where he spent several years after the e-commerce giant bought his company, Diapers.com-maker Quidsi.
He says that Walmart has been building up its capabilities to offer faster deliveries throughout the United States. Lore claims that it already has the infrastructure to do overnight delivery for 87 percent of the country and is working on spreading out inventory to these warehouse locations.
Expect Walmart to “crush it over the next two years,” said Lore. He says he “wouldn’t trade our position with anyone right now.”
