Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

The largest-ever acquisition of an e-commerce company likely won't be enough for Wal-Mart to dethrone Amazon. But there's no shame in playing for second.

In a bid to juice its online business, the world's largest retailer agreed Monday to purchase Jet.com in a $3.3 billion deal. The acquisition will beef up Wal-Mart's e-commerce prowess, from deepening its bench of talent to finding the cheapest way to ship online orders.
These capabilities should help Wal-Mart grab a larger piece of the growing e-commerce pie. They're also the best chance it has of closing the wide — and growing — gap between it and Amazon, analysts said.

"Amazon's got this huge lead. That lead is going to be tough to relinquish but there's a lot of [share] out there," Moody's analyst Charlie O'Shea told CNBC....

Wal-Mart is offering free shipping with no minimum purchase on all online orders during the week of July 11, its latest move to steal some thunder from Amazon's much-publicized Prime Day shopping event, which takes place July 12.

SWal-Mart will offer the free shipping option alongside 30-day free trials of ShippingPass, a $49-per-year program giving members free two-day shipping on many items. Wal-Mart has seen daily ShippingPass sign-ups more than quadruple in a week compared to the previous week, Internet Retailer reports, although the retailer didn’t disclose how many customers have signed up.In addition to touting its shipping deals, Wal-Mart is holding a sale to rival Prime Day this year, as it did last year. 

Stores including Target, Sears and Banana Republic also are offering deals coinciding with Prime Day, notes USA Today.Wal-Mart is aggressively targeting Amazon Prime Day, offering discounts on merchandise from televisions and clothes to furniture this week, Reuters reports.

And while Prime Day deals are available exclusively to Prime subscribers, Wal-Mart is imposing no such restrictions. “We believe saving money every day is better than just one, and that all customers should save, not only some,” Wal-Mart said in a statement....

It’s no secret bricks and mortar retailers are struggling to maintain profitability and manage expenses for their retail stores. As the importance of omnichannel grows, who are the US retailers finding success with e-commerce? Today’s retail and e-commerce roundup answers that question.

According to the US Department of Commerce, Q2 2016 e-commerce sales grew 16%. Walmart announced  positive Q2 earnings and an 11.8% jump in its e-commerce business.Target had a strong first half 2016 with e-commerce sales for pickup in-store up 50%. While Perry Ellis online sales grew 35.6% in Q2, it also plans to close 15 US stores, 20% of its retail locations.

Overall revenue decreased at Bon-Ton but sales on mobile devices were up 129% after enhancements to the mobile shopping site and simplifying its checkout for customers.

Q2 2016 total sales for Nordstrom.com grew 9.4% to reach $683 million. Revenue was up 6.6% at Home Depot and it fulfilled 42% of online orders in-store. Staples saw online revenue grow to more than 50% of sales in its B2B e-commerce business....