The world's largest retailer has had a few missteps in 2007 trying to change its stores to cater to higher-income shoppers, with trendier clothes and organic foods being some of the product additions. The so-far failure of these lucrative consumers flocking to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is a testament to how strongly most of the U.S. sees Wal-Mart as a discount chain, not a purveyor of anything high-end. The reality is changing, of course, as the retailer adds higher-end goods (like nicer plasma flat-screen televisions), but getting past the image of "always low prices" is no small matter.

Perhaps Wal-Mart should try to sway the iVillage crowd? It's making a stab at that by introducing the new 'z.b.d. design' female clothing line that only appears on the retailer's website, but not in stores. Perhaps Wal-Mart marketing execs believe that the chain can sell trendier women's clothing if those customers can separate the "discount" image in regular stores from the apparent elegance its website possesses. I'm not sure customers can delineate between Wal-Mart Supercenters in their respective areas and www.walmart.com, but it never hurts to try, I guess. It is interesting to note that Wal-Mart's website is a bright spot for the company right now, as it is one of the largest e-commerce sites in the world.

It's not really a revelation that Wal-Mart's website strategy now includes the feature where customers can order online and pick up that merchandise at a local store later without paying any shipping charges. The retailer knows that once a customer plants a foot inside a physical store -- if only to pick up a web order -- he or she will probably shop some more, upping the "ticket" for that particular shopping trip. My guess is that Wal-Mart will use the same strategy to get female shoppers picking up these new clothing purchases at local stores after having ordered on the web.