Walmart Canada makes moves to rival Amazon with online marketplace

Walmart Canada is expanding its offering in order to compete more closely with Amazon.

Over the next two months, the company will be improving its online product-base by giving customers the opportunity to purchase the goods of third-party brands and businesses in a similar model to Amazon Marketplace.

According to Walmart Canada’s CEO Lee Tappenden, the move has been a planned part of their growth strategy in the online sector.

“This has been in the works for a long time,” he told Financial Post. 

“We will double the SKUS we have online at the launch date, and by early next year we will have millions of SKUs online.”

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The retailer will also be introducing ‘click and collect’ in over 100 of its stores by Christmas and in the remaining 410 in the future.

Customers will be able to place orders online for collection, saving on delivery costs. Research done by the company indicates that spend increases by 250% on ‘click and collect’ orders compared to a normal transaction.

One of the country’s most recognisable brands, Walmart Canada’s website is visited by more than 500,000 users every day. 

Amazon was Canada’s biggest e-commerce retailer in 2016, however, notching £3.5bn worth of sales.