Walmart Name Change Shows Online/Offline Worlds Merge
Walmart changed its name from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to Walmart Inc. I read about it on Walmart’s blog. Yes, Walmart has a blog. Does your business have a blog?
In the old days, you could divide companies between online and bricks and mortar businesses. E-commerce meant a company sold products and services online from their website or a platform like Ebay or Amazon. Bricks and mortar businesses sold from a physical location. Today, Amazon owns Whole Foods and rumors abound about Amazon buying Target Stores next.
Here are some excerpts from the article:
We’re Updating Our Legal Name to Reflect How Customers Want to Shop – Here’s Why
Notice that Walmart dropped the comma before Inc. Same as Apple when it changed its name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple Inc.
Most of us, and I’d guess all our customers, refer to our company as Walmart and still will. Changing our corporate name from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., to Walmart Inc. is just a symbol of how customers are shopping us today and how they’ll increasingly shop us in the future. Whether it’s in our stores, on our sites, with our apps, by using their voice or whatever comes next, there is just one Walmart as far as our customers are concerned. When they shop with us, they expect it to be an easy and seamless experience.
Good move to include Sam Walton in this announcement. I wonder who came up with the idea of adding the dash.
Changing our corporate name to Walmart is a way of better reflecting our company’s path to win the future of retail. It’s also a bit about returning to the company’s roots. You might be surprised to learn that, when Sam Walton opened the first store in 1962, the name on the front of the building was simply, “Walmart.” A few years later, we incorporated as Wal-Mart, Inc., and amended the name to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., when we went public in 1970.
Walmart is a huge organization. Imagine the amount of work required to change the name of the company.
We began with great stores and steadily expanded to include clubs and distribution centers. In 1991, we became a global retailer when we opened our first international location in Mexico City, and we launched Walmart.com in 2000. Today we operate under almost 60 different banners around the world, including eCommerce sites, and have more than 11,600 stores and clubs in 28 countries.
Like every blog which allows comments, you can leave positive and negative comments on Walmart’s blog. You can read them and the rest of the article here:
The online and offline worlds are coming together for Walmart for the benefit of its customers and shareholders. Their name change signifies a game change happening across the economy. All businesses will be affected over time including yours. This is the new normal for commerce. Get started now before your clients expect it.