The company hopes focusing more on its digital presence will help it compete with Amazon
Last week Walmart and Sam’s Club announced that Sam’s Club’s online business will be integrated into Walmart’s global e-commerce business. To head up this restructuring, the company has hired former Barnes & Noble executive Jamie Iannone to be the president and CEO of samsclub.com. As the former president of digital products in charge of B&N’s Nook Media unit and a former eBay veteran, Iannone should be a key asset in this move.
Sam’s Club CEO Rosalind Brewer says, “At Walmart, we believe combining the assets of the world’s largest retailer with best-in-class ecommerce capabilities gives our customers and members a unique shopping opportunity. The integration of Sam’s Club e-commerce operations with Global e-commerce allows us to build on our collective strengths. This, combined with Jamie’s leadership, gives us a competitive advantage no one else can match.”
This move stands to be an important step for Sam’s Club to elevate its presence in the e-commerce realm. Previously, the Sam’s Club’s e-commerce business was run through the headquarters in Bentonville, AR; however, now, it will be based in the San Bruno headquarters, and Iannone will be working closely with the CEO of Walmart’s Global e-commerce division, Neil Ashe. Iannone will be replacing SVP of marketing John Brewer, who formerly oversaw Sam’s Club’s e-commerce operations, in addition to his many other duties. The fact that the company has hired Iannone in a position dedicated to samsclub.com suggests that there will be much more attention to growing the company’s online strategies and outreach.
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According to the Wall Street Journal, web sales have become a key part of Walmart’s business. As more and more retailers are throwing their hats into the online ring, the retailer has been feeling pressure to keep customers choosing Walmart. Not only has the online game affected the amount of foot traffic the company has seen in its stores, but there has also been more competition from smaller-format stores that stand to draw some attention away from Walmart. Considering the fact that the company did see some sales growth from online sales, it hopes to keep drawing customers online as in-store traffic slows, ultimately hoping to earn $10 billion in online sales by the end of the year ending January 31.
One key competitor for Sam’s Club in particular, is Amazon, especially because of its success with its Amazon Prime membership program. Coming out of the holiday season, the e-retail giant boasted recruiting more than 1 million Amazon Prime members in the third week of December alone. While CEO Jeff Bezos didn’t say exactly how many members Prime has enrolled to date, the “tens of millions of members worldwide” is, according to various journalists, estimated to be in the park of 20 million. For Sam’s Club, it is especially important the company start to focus more thoroughly on its e-commerce strategy, considering “A Sam’s Club member is really prone to have an Amazon Prime membership. So that’s really fueling and enabling and giving us courage” to amp up the company’s online presence, Brewer told the WSJ.
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