Superstore Walmart (WMT) has been fastidious in its efforts to compete with e-commerce giant Amazon (AMZN). From its online shopping options to fast shipping and potential drone delivery in the future, the two retailers are often neck-and-neck when it comes to innovation.
Walmart has made another move to follow Amazon's lead on the technical front. The Arkansas-based company revealed a redesign of its online app and website on April 3. And the layout looks awfully like Amazon’s app interface, despite the signature Walmart-blue hue.
DON'T MISS: Jim Cramer Says Walmart Could Defeat Amazon
TheStreet
The new Walmart home page features larger, more engaging photos of products. There are also clever categories for browsing, giving the app a feel more akin to scrolling through Instagram. And in fact, the company's digital makeover is fashioned to remind shoppers of social media.
Walmart's Chief E-Commerce Officer Tom Ward described the new layout in a blog post, saying that "the new homepage offers a product-focused experience that better mirrors the way our customers love to shop, highlighting the items that matter most to them at any given moment."
"The feature-packed homepage has rich imagery, live video, and is optimized to better bring Walmart’s massive assortment to life," Ward says of the update, "including a new social-inspired scroll so customers can browse our selection just as they’d scroll their favorite social media apps."
Ward also believes the new look will attract third-party suppliers. From where he's standing, the site "also provides our suppliers and Marketplace sellers new opportunities to showcase more relevant products and better tell their stories."
