Wal-Mart's Digital Brand Strategy Sputter

Not sure it did, but some rethinking seems to be at hand.   Even now I think of it as a company seeking a more affluent and tech savvy base.   Seems like a good move to try.

‘Seemed like kind of a mishmash’: Why Walmart’s digital brands strategy sputtered   By Anna Hensel in ModernRetail

As Bonobos founder Andy Dunn prepares to leave Walmart, it’s the latest sign of trouble for the company’s group of digitally native brands.

Dunn joined Walmart in 2017, after the company acquired his menswear brand for $310 million. Dunn was first supposed to help Walmart find other digitally-native brands that would be ripe for acquisition; then the strategy shifted so that Dunn would help Walmart figure out how to launch its own digitally-native brands that would help Walmart go after a demographic that it’s long struggled with: young, affluent urban consumers.

Now, as Dunn prepares to exit Walmart, the company has found other ways to target a more affluent consumer. It’s been able to get existing fashion brands like Calvin Klein, Levi’s and Betsey Johnson, to sell on Walmart’s website, simply by improving the Walmart e-commerce experience. The company has also said that it is no longer focusing on building purely direct-to-consumer brands, but instead brands that it can sell both online and in-store, and “putting our investments in areas where our omni capabilities and unique advantages put us in a position to win,” a spokesperson recently told the Verge. .... "