Walmart Moves On Interior Design With New Site

Walmart, in its ongoing quest to reinvent its digital presence, is rolling out a new online portal for consumers seeking home goods.

The new Walmart Home shopping experience will feature curated collections across nine style categories in a new web space designed to better highlight products like accessories, furniture and other interior design-oriented items. Styling categories will include modern, mid-century, traditional, glam, industrial, bohemian, farmhouse, transitional and Scandinavian.

More than just featuring products, however, Home as — reconcieved by Walmart over the last year or so — will work to display the products with editorial imagery and embedded design tips written by in-house experts.

The new initiative comes as Home is rebuilding itself, largely around to two executive appointments: Anthony Soohoo, previously the CEO at home furnishings brand Dot & Bo, becoming SVP and GM of the Home group across all U.S. eCommerce retail within Walmart.com, Hayneedle and Jet.com — plus Scott Doughman as Hayneedle’s president.

“As the head of Home for Walmart U.S. eCommerce, and admittedly design-obsessed, I’m personally excited about the changes we’re making to help our customers shop the high-quality, on-trend and, of course, affordable home assortment we offer on Walmart.com,” said Soohoo in a statement.

It is not known exactly how much in the way of home furnishing Walmart is selling at present — though it is telling that the brand has nearly doubled its assortment of furnishing and home decor products. Moreover, the new Home site may shape up to be an opportunity for Walmart to give more of its private label brands a public outlet — as Mainstays, Better Homes and Gardens and Pioneer Woman are all appropriate to the segment.

And, of course, the expansion and investment gives Walmart a chance to do more of its favorite thing — compete with Amazon, which launched its first home furnishings in November.  And, for kicks, it also gets to complete with brick-and-mortar rival Target, which has also expanded its offerings.

Walmart, meanwhile, will focus heavily on competing on price — think $150 sofas — which means it will also be putting pressure on furniture retailers that promote affordability, like IKEA and Wayfair.

The new site will go live on Walmart.com across web and mobile as a slow rollout over the next few weeks, under the Home category.