To beat the world's largest online retailer at its own game, it takes an internet giant and a retail giant to team up
It’s more Battle of the Titans than David and Goliath: Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, and internet giant Google are teaming up in an attempt to beat Amazon at its own game.
Amazon has long dominated global e-commerce across multiple sectors, and recently muscled in on the online groceries market, paying 12.5 billion euros for organic food retailer Whole Foods.
Its success is in part due to the enduring popularity of Prime, which members pay for. By contrast, Google Express and Wal-Mart, both recently axed their fees and have been trying to compete on delivery fees.
Voice-shopping
The duo say they hope to give consumers a greater range of purchasing options.
They will try to achieve this by focusing on building up a strong voice-shopping offer. Hundreds of thousands of Walmart products will be made available to by through the Google Home voice-controlled speaker. This is a direct challenge to the Amazon Echo service, which has yet to take-off.