Walmart has made no secret of its online shopping ambitions. The retail giant, which operates 5,000 stores throughout the U.S., has made major investments in e-commerce in the past several years to compete with Amazon on its native turf. The latest is a redesigned website, due to roll out in May, that seeks to bring “a cleaner and more modern digital shopping experience” to Walmart.com.
What will that look like? For one, a less cluttered homepage with a wider variety of fonts and colors, and full-width images of “real-life moments” that are intended to inspire visitors to buy. The company’s name, which resides in the top left corner of the page, will be replaced by its yellow spark logo. Scroll a bit further down the screen, and shoppers will find trending items personalized to their location, updates on their order status, and quick-reorder buttons for their regular purchases.
The sleeker design is also intended to make the site more inviting for upmarket brands and high-income shoppers. Lord & Taylor, which inked a partnership with Walmart in the fall, will have a dedicated space on the homepage — not to mention the opportunity to get in front of 100 million unique visitors per month, per comScore data. Walmart will also be launching a fashion destination on the site, with a more editorial, trend-conscious feel than they’d find while browsing for, say, dish soap or potting soil.
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Notable about each of these new features is that they will distinguish the retailer’s online experience from that of its biggest competitor; Amazon, for all its innovation in areas like cloud technology and smart speakers, has barely changed its homepage since 2010, banking more on familiarity, search and algorithmic recommendations than elegant design.
