Walmart spruces up website in bid to capture traffic from Amazon

A redesigned Walmart Inc. website will go live next month, part of a strategy by the world's largest retailer to lure customers away from rival Amazon.com Inc. with a more personalised shopping experience.

The new site will include new colours, fonts and lifestyle-focused imagery, according to a blog post from Walmart's US e-commerce chief Marc Lore. The site's homepage will feature top-selling items in each customer's location and a quick link to purchase previously ordered items. It will also include a new fashion section, while other categories will get a fresh look later in the year.

"We want each category to feel like you are shopping a speciality store," Mr Lore said in the post. "Our goal is to make it compelling for customers to shop for whatever they are looking for - whether diapers, laundry detergent or a new dining room table." The redesign, which Mr Lore first mentioned at an October investor conference, aims to convince Walmart's frugal in-store shoppers to buy online as well: Those that do spend nearly twice as much. The fresh look could also help the retailer regain momentum it lost over the holiday period, when online sales grew at less than half the pace of previous quarters.

The retailer is chasing a moving target, though, as Amazon continues to push into key Walmart categories like fashion and food.

Customer Feedback Mr Lore said the redesign was based on feedback from customers, existing suppliers and also from brands that don't currently sell on the site. He has pledged to make Walmart.com more of an upscale destination by courting premium brands, like Bose speakers. The new fashion page will eventually include items from department-store chain Lord & Taylor, which inked a partnership with Walmart last year.

The memo made no mention of Jet.com, the site co-founded by Mr Lore that Walmart bought in 2016. Jet's traffic has declined in recent months as Walmart has focused more efforts on its primary website.

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