Lord & Taylor to Launch Flagship Store on Walmart.com

Lord & Taylor will launch a flagship store on Walmart.com in spring 2018, according to a joint announcement from the retailers yesterday. As part of the agreement, Lord & Taylor will introduce a specialized “flagship store” on Walmart.com, which essentially will be a section on Walmart’s website and an app dedicated to goods sold by the high-end department store.

“Our goal is to create a premium fashion destination on Walmart.com,” said Denise Incandela, head of fashion, Wal-Mart U.S. E-Commerce, in a statement. “We see customers on our site searching for higher-end items, and we're expanding our business online to focus on adding specialized and premium shopping experiences, starting with fashion."

Liz Rodbell, president of Lord & Taylor, said the flagship store on Walmart.com creates growth opportunities for the retailer and its brand partners. "Our customers trust us to deliver high-quality fashion apparel and accessories, and we will soon be able to extend the reach of that offering to new customers through this flagship store," Rodbell said. "Walmart.com is a shopping destination that reaches a wide base of customers looking for premium fashion brands. It is a great company for us to work with as we continue to grow our digital presence.”

Total Retail's Take: For Wal-Mart, the partnership with Lord & Taylor enables it to feature a larger merchandise assortment — something it has been growing for the past year. In fact, Walmart.com currently offers more than 60 million items, compared to 20 million items last year. For Lord & Taylor, this deal is all about traffic — department stores are struggling getting people into their stores, and a presence on Walmart.com will give the brand new eyeballs. Lord & Taylor will keep its existing e-commerce site, so this new online store is really just to attract consumers that wouldn’t otherwise shop with the brand online. (And the company can keep the two selling channels separate, so as not to dilute the Lord & Taylor brand). It will be interesting to watch how the partnership does. High-end fashion has been a category notorious for being hard to sell online, especially as expensive brands have been reluctant to let sites like Amazon.com and Walmart.com carry their items. If the deal proves to be successful, look to see a lot of copycats because there’s certainly no shortage of department stores and brick-and-mortar retailers looking to grow their online presences.