Walmart ends program that helped it keep up with Amazon [Crew Review]

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Hey Reader,

When you search for jet.com, you’ll be redirected to Walmart’s online store. This is because the company bought the site in 2016 for $3.3 billion but eventually shut it down in 2020.

But aside from the e-commerce company, Walmart also got Jet’s former CEO, Marc Lore, along with the deal. They then hired him as the President and CEO of Walmart U.S. eCommerce.

In 2017, Lore and Sam Walton created Store No. 8 which served as the company’s technology incubator and lab. It was a place to innovate and test new technologies that would help Walmart keep up with its competitors, including Amazon.

But after more than 5 years, Store No. 8 is shutting down.



Does this mean that Walmart is giving up on its quest to further its technological innovations?

Not exactly. CFO John Rainey explained, “We’ve graduated capabilities from this operating approach that are now fully embedded in our organization… The responsibility to shape the future of retail is now shared by all segments.”

In other words, Store No. 8’s technologies have been used to build systems that work alongside the business to help with innovations. This resulted in the responsibility of innovating being shared across the company.

Store No. 8 developed technologies like Conversational Commerce that allowed users access to text and voice shopping, and InHome Walmart’s enhanced delivery service.

Employees from Store No. 8 will be reassigned to other areas of the business.

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A Future Without Cookies

Thankfully, we’re not talking about the delicious baked dessert most of us enjoy.

Recently, Google joined other companies by disallowing cookies in Chrome. It started with 1% of its users (about 30 million) and is set to remove them completely for all users by the end of the year.



Cookies help track a user’s online behavior and collect information from them. This is good for online sellers and advertisers who need the data to analyze consumer behavior. However, most people oppose this as it violates their privacy. The growing privacy concern led to legal and political discussions that eventually pushed the company to take action.

But without cookies, where will advertisers get their data?

The thing is, although Google will no longer use third-party cookies, it’s still going to track you–but in a different way. The company said that it would be a more private tracking. They call the project Privacy Sandbox.

In essence, the new tracking system will keep your individual browsing behavior while still allowing third parties to gather information to keep using Google’s services for free. Chrome will track what you do online but instead of sending them off to third parties right away, your data is stored in your device first. Next, Chrome sorts you into categories, e.g., people who are interested in home decor.

This doesn’t protect users’ privacy 100 percent, but it’s more private than using third-party cookies.

Last Year, These Were Your Favorites

Every year, we release a poll to determine which software most Amazon sellers use. The results are finally in, and these are the tools you chose:

• Product Research: Helium 10
• PPC Management: Adtomic by Helium 10 and Prestozon
• Reimbursement Service: GETIDA
• Product Launches: JoinBrands
• Repricing: BQool & AZ Seller Kit

We also want to congratulate our lucky survey winner who won a full year’s access to EcomCrew Premium.

Etc.

An older demographic. Temu may be relatively new and is expected to attract a younger audience, but it defied expectations by having Gen X and baby boomers spending more during its first year in the United States.

Too strict? Amazon was fined $35 million by the French Data Protection Authority for alleged intrusive monitoring of its warehouse staff using handheld barcode scanners.

Wanna Roomba? After reports that the European Union antitrust regulator was planning to block the $1.4 billion deal between Amazon and iRobot, the latter’s share dropped by more than 30%.