Walmart has purchased the online footwear retailer ShoeBuy for approximately $70 million, in a move aimed at helping its subsidiary Jet.com offer shoppers a larger selection of shoes and sneakers. Walmart, under enormous competitive pressure from e-Commerce titan Amazon, has been moving aggressively over the last few months to expand its digital reach.
ShoeBuy CEO Mike Sorabella, his executive team, and ShoeBuy’s 200-plus employees will continue to be based in Boston.
ShoeBuy — which became one of the first companies to sell shoes online around the same time that Zappos (acquired by Amazon in 2009 for $847 million) launched — carries more than 800 brands and over one million items, including footwear for women, men and kids, as well as clothing and accessories such as outerwear and handbags.
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“Jet will gain the experience of a well-established e-Commerce player in the footwear industry, who has transformed the online shopping experience for millions of customers,” Walmart said in statement. “ShoeBuy brings access to a large assortment of products, strong industry relationships, and rich content that will further enhance our customer experience.”
The ShoeBuy purchase follows the same acquisition strategy Jet employed when it paid a reported $90 million to buy the online home furnishings retailer Hayneedle in March 2016 to help boost its assortment in that area. Walmart anticipates spending as much as $11 billion in 2017 on e-Commerce initiatives while slowing store growth, instead preferring to invest in the stores it operates already.
