Walmart vs. Amazon: Apparel Remains Key

Whatever Walmart Inc.’s ambitions are for its online business, apparel will be key. As the world’s largest retailer moves aggressively to close the gap with Amazon, the battleground between the two Goliaths is likely to involve apparel to a large extent, observers say. The Bentonville, Ark.-based behemoth “can’t be all about grocery,” said Carol Spieckerman, president of Spieckerman Retail. “Apparel is still the key to a higher-margin business to offset some of the investment [Walmart is making] in grocery and digital. It makes sense that they would up their game and be mindful of what they’re leaving on the table. Looking at Amazon, and their massive push into private brands, many of them are in the apparel area. “A more controllable route would be to start focusing on their own higher margin apparel brands,” Spieckerman added. “That could be signaling a revisiting of their private brand portfolio just as they’re doing in home and carving out a more distinct apparel perspective, rather than continuing to double down on high volume basics.” Target and Amazon are outpacing Walmart in terms of the sheer number of brands each is developing in-house, Spieckerman said. “With Amazon, you have to believe their strategy is to go for more

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