Walmart and Google get vocal about Amazon competition

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Walmart and Google unveiled a new partnership today that will take the fight to Amazon on both retail and voice search fronts.

The US grocery giant will allow shoppers to order hundreds of its products using Google’s AI-powered voice-activated device from next month.

The tie-up will also be extended across 4,700 of Walmart’s stores next year, and will incentivise shoppers using Google Assistant to order products through discounts and fresh grocery offers.

Walmart’s ecommerce boss Marc Lore enthused in a blog post unveiling the partnership that it would “create customer experiences that don’t currently exist within voice shopping anywhere else”.

Lore also made a clear nod to online retail Goliath Amazon, and acknowledged that Walmart’s tie-up with Google would mean the grocer is “compared side-by-side with other retailers”.

As well as disrupting the retail sector, Amazon is vying with Google for dominance in the voice-activated assistant arena.

The former’s Echo device currently dominates the voice-ordering space, so this tie-up is undoubtedly part of Google’s fightback plan to establish itself as the go-to partner for retailers looking to cash in on a rapidly growing area of the ecommerce sector.

Also today, Tesco kicked off its investor compensation scheme and Laura Ashley posted a 72% plunge in preliminary profits.

Quote of the day

“We are focused on addressing the challenges which our business has encountered over the past year and are confident that we are well-positioned to overcome them.”

– Laura Ashley chairman Dr Khoo Kay Peng