June 18, 2014

Walmart Labs makes 13th acquisition in three years with Stylr

Back in May, we discussed Walmart Labs' acquisition of Adchemy, an e-commerce and product search company. Through this deal, Walmart Labs gained Adchemy's team of over 60 employees to help develop its ability to create effective e-commerce technology.

It was announced recently that Walmart Labs has made another acquisition. According to a Tech Crunch article, Walmart Labs will acquire a fashion app called Stylr. Stylr allows consumers to locate clothing at nearby stores using their mobile phones. 

"As we continue to integrate digital and physical retail to create new and unique experiences for customers, we're thrilled to add Stylr to our mobile team. Over half of Walmart smartphone users have used their device in-store to assist with their shopping, and with 80% of our customers under the age of 35 owning a smartphone, we expect this to grow dramatically," said Gibu Thoms, SVP of mobile and digital at Walmart in an announcement on the the Walmart Labs blog

According to Tech Crunch, this acquisition strategy could be another situation where Walmart Labs was interested in bringing the talent of another company into its operations. As a result the Stylr app will be shut down.

As ZDNet details, Walmart Labs has been working on finding ways to make the worlds of online and offline shopping come together, to create a more integrated experience. The company is focusing on a mobile push, and by acquiring the talent behind Stylr, the company will be able to continue boosting its efforts in this direction. 

According to the Walmart Labs blog, this is the 13th acquisition for the company in the last three years. Some of their other acquisitions over the years have included companies like Tasty Labs, Kosmix, Adchemy and Small Society.