Lord & Taylor’s Store On Walmart.com To Launch Soon

Lord & Taylor and Walmart are teaming up to create an online store within Walmart.com that will sell around 125 fashion brands.

The New York Times, citing the companies, reported some of the designers will include Tommy Bahama, La La Anthony, H Halston and Effy. The online store is being touted as a “premium” shopping destination on the web, something Walmart is not known for.  Walmart has been trying to lure more urban shoppers its way and has been making acquisitions and inking partnerships to meet that end. During the past year it has acquired Modcloth and Bonobos, two clothing websites. It’s also created its own line of bedding that is sold only online, noted the report. It’s also overhauled its website to make it look more modern.

For Lord & Taylor, it’s a way to reach a new crop of customers who aren’t the traditional shoppers in its stores. The paper noted that Lord & Taylor’s website had around 2.2 million unique visitors, which is tiny compared to the 101 million that go to Walmart.com. The New York Times cited comScore for the data. “This is a tremendous growth opportunity,” R.J. Cilley, a senior vice president of digital at Lord & Taylor, said in a conference call on Tuesday (May 15), according to the NYT. “We are growing our footprint to reach exponentially more customers.”

The online Lord & Taylor store is slated to launch on Walmart.com in the next few weeks, with Lord & Taylor in charge of shipping to customers’ homes. It will sell the same brands in its stores and on its Lord & Taylor website at the same prices it offers the items on Walmart.com. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, noted the NYT.  While Walmart has long focused on selling consumer staples at a discount, it wants to become a fashion destination — thus the deals and acquisitions.