E-commerce has been spiking up during the Covid-19 pandemic due to the stay-at-home lifestyle. But as the shutdown unwinds, consumers’ current shopping and payment trends will continue. So now Walmart and Shopify are teaming up to bolster their e-commerce resources, especially when it comes to small and medium businesses.
Last year Walmart started its Marketplace for third party sellers, and now Shopify can bring its large seller base to the same table. Expect to see more e-commerce partnerships and acquisitions as e-commerce looks to accelerate to 20% of U.S retail sales by the end of 2020.
The following TechCrunch article, excerpted below, reports more on the topic:
Walmart this morning announced a new partnership with e-commerce shopping platform, Shopify, now used by over 1 million businesses. The deal will open Walmart’s Marketplace to Shopify’s small business sellers, with the goal of bringing 1,200 Shopify sellers to the marketplace this year. The partnership will greatly expand the reach of the participating brands by placing them in front of Walmart Marketplace’s 120 million monthly visitors.
The partnership is a direct shot at Amazon, which today promises third-party sellers the ability to reach more than 300 million customers worldwide and even offers help with shipping, returns and customer service by way of Fulfillment by Amazon.
Walmart, meanwhile, has been steadily working to make its own marketplace a more competitive offering. In fall 2018, for example, the retailer announced Walmart Marketplace items would be able to participate in its free, two-day shipping program and would be eligible for in-store returns. Today, Walmart describes its Marketplace’s growth as a “strategic priority.”
Overview by Raymond Pucci, Director, Merchant Services at Mercator Advisory Group