When Adobe Met Walmart & Its Marketplace

SaaS
Written By Rick Watson

Adobe announced a partnership with Walmart. Several readers asked me to give my take on it, now I understand why - even the Adobe CEO couldn't explain it in an interview. Only two things happened.

  1. Adobe Commerce said that it would "soon" integrate into the Walmart Marketplace. This is nothing to write home about. Shopify did this in June 2020. BigCommerce did this in February 2021. Welcome to July 2021, Adobe! BigCommerce acquired an entire company to do this exact thing more reliably - Feedonomics.

  2. Walmart promised that it would start selling some software in 2022 related to in-store pickup experiences. Nothing to talk about related to Walmart Marketplace. It's another channel. Whee! On the software side:

    1. This software is not even released. Not until next year.

    2. Who will sell it and support it? (WMT has no software sales and support team)

  3. There is no strategy here by Walmart. This is Walmart's Amazon envy here pure and simple.

  4. These partnerships are not exclusives. If they are, I did not read that, and it would be strategic suicide in any event.

  5. How many SMBs and mid-market retailers are a fit for software that the largest retailer in the world built for itself?

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/
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