While business partners eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) and Craigslist are busy duking it out over lord knows what, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) is quietly making a surprising move into the online classifieds business.
The retailer recently revealed its own online classified ad site in partnership with Oodle.com -- check it out here. According to the Wall Street Journal, the site is a pilot test with 30 million items, and financial terms of the arrangement have not been disclosed.
This raises an important question: how is the site different from Craigslist? Glad you asked: it isn't really, but it's a cleaner set-up, although Craigslist's minimalist design appears to be quite popular. Wal-Mart Classified is also really just an aggregator of ads from from tons of other sites -- nothing unique at all. The question is whether college students and recent grads (a key Craigslist market) looking for furniture or apartment rentals will really want to log-on to walmart.com to do it -- I'm skeptical.
The site also features some decidedly un-Wal-Martian merchandise: a pro-union Scabs are Trash button and some Buy American! sheet music.
Wal-Mart launches free online classifieds
Posted Jun 3rd 2008 9:09AM by Zac Bissonnette
Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Consumer experience, eBay (EBAY), Wal-Mart (WMT)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-03-2008 @ 12:13PM
madmilker said...
where is "elsewhere?"
quote*In China, as elsewhere, we follow the Wal-Mart tradition of building our business one store and one customer at a time. We strive to provide our customers with friendly service and a wide selection of quality products at Every Day Low Prices. With each Wal-Mart store we bring advanced retail know-how to the local market. By fostering a healthy, competitive environment, we hope to constantly improve our business operations and customer service in order to contribute to the prosperity of the local economy.
Wal-Mart firmly believes in local procurement. We recognize that by purchasing quality products, we can generate more job opportunities, support local manufacturing and boost economic development. Over 95% of the merchandise in our stores in China is sourced locally. We have established partnerships with nearly 20,000 suppliers in China. At Wal-Mart, we always work with our suppliers to grow together. In August 2007, Wal-Mart once again secured the top spot of the 2007 Supplier Satisfaction Survey conducted by Business Information of Shanghai. Additionally, Wal-Mart directly exports about US$9 billion from China every year. The export volume by third party suppliers is also estimated to be over US$9 billion.....*******end of quote
dang! ther be 182 country's making stuff to sell to the World and this company only gives them 5% of the pie in China and that country "elsewhere".
jus look at all the new jobs in America if that company supported American export and put 95% American items in the stores in the USA....dang! that US dollar would be strutting like the only rooster in the hen house.....but for the way the American consumer thinks with that "cheap" is good that US dollar will never get out of the outhouse!
People in America need to think...made in America!
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