Walmart To Buy Bonobos?

Walmart is in late-stage acquisition talks with Bonobos, an online men’s fashion retailer based in New York City.

Both sides have agreed on a price yet to be disclosed, said Recode, though Bonobos was reportedly valued at $300 million after a $55 million Series D round back in 2014 brought its total venture funding to $125 million.

Founded in 2007, Bonobos sells dress pants, suits and outerwear via its website and later through Nordstrom. Bonobos also has over 30 physical showroom locations. Sources peg that the deal between Walmart and Bonobos is currently in its final due diligence stages.

Walmart continues to invest heavily in building out its eCommerce offerings, gathering assets and elements to compete head-on with online retail giant Amazon.

If and when the deal goes through, Bonobos will be the fourth eCommerce acquisition Walmart has made in less than a year under Digital Chief Marc Lore, brought on after the acquisition of online marketplace Jet.com in September 2016.

Other eCommerce acquisitions include online women’s retailer ModCloth, bought up by Walmart in March of this year, and online outdoor retailer Moosejaw in February.

Walmart has been acquiring eCommerce brands in bids to expand the company’s digital presence, grow the demographics of its consumer base and compete with Amazon, as the online retail giant pushes into Walmart’s physical retail domain.

In 2016, eCommerce sales from Walmart’s website made up 3 percent of its total revenue. For comparison, online retail accounts for some 11 percent of the entire retail industry’s sales.

Outside of apparel, Walmart and Amazon are also prepping for battle in the grocery space, as the online retail giant rolls out a number of brick-and-mortar food initiatives, along with boosting its existing delivery capabilities, across 2017.

Recently, Amazon’s market value nearly doubled that of Walmart.

Through 2016 and into 2017, Walmart has cut thousands of back-office and corporate jobs, leveraging the savings to fund its online presence and boost in-store sales positions.