Wal-Mart's Jet.com Acquires ShoeBuy

Jet.com, the Amazon.com rival owned by retailing giant Wal-Mart, bought online footwear retailer ShoeBuy for $70 million, the company said Thursday. The move underscores Wal-Mart's continued push against Amazon, owner of online shoe store Zappos. The biggest retailer in the world, Wal-Mart made online expansion its priority last year, acquiring Jet.com for $3.3 billion and setting up a plan to invest billions more into e-commerce while scaling back new store openings.

Total Retail's Take: The e-commerce arms race between Wal-Mart and Amazon continues. Clearly chasing Amazon for e-commerce dominance — the online marketplace announced record sales in 2016 — Wal-Mart is investing significant resources into growing its online sales. Jet.com's acquisition of ShoeBuy is just another move towards that digital future. However, one has to wonder if it's too little too late. Amazon shows no signs of ceding market share to Wal-Mart or anyone else, and is continually innovating and finding ways to grow its business — e.g., moving into brick-and-mortar. For Wal-Mart, second place might have to be good enough.