The retailer is making some strides with its e-commerce efforts as sales increase. Walmart’s $3.3 billion purchase of Jet.com in August will accelerate the push to connect Amazon. Patchy cs and a brick-and-mortar image are some of the remaining hurdles to the plodding retailer’s online success.Walmart’s leader, Doug McMillon, has made internet sales a priority after earlier efforts to kick-start growth fell flat. The Jet.com founder Marc Lore — now Walmart’s head of e-commerce — had the right ambition. He planned to correlate Amazon on price, but hit a silent policeman after Jet was forced to drop its annual membership fee shortly after its start. Still, Mr. Lore’s past success with the sale of the company behind Diapers.com to Amazon shows he knows how to get the online giant’s attention.Jet is already helping bolster sales. Digital revenue jumped 20 percent year-over-year in the three months ended in October, nearly double the 12 percent growth notched in the previous quarter, before Walmart closed the Jet deal.Along with buying Jet, Walmart took a 10 percent stake in China’s JD.com and may be eyeing a similar regard Flipkart of India. It is targeting a 20 to 30 percent compound annual growth rate in e-commerce over the next three years as it prioritizes online sales over new store openings.Any growth will be from a low base, however. Online revenue represents about 3 percent of some annual $480 billion in top line.There are other points of weakness, too. Amazon is easier to use, with better shipping options and the world’s biggest online inventory. Walmart scores lower on WPP’s BrandZ list of the most valuable global brands, notching at No. 32 versus Amazon’s seventh place. The Alphabet unit Google places first. The survey also showed Walmart lagging Amazon in after-sales service in important categories like electronics. That’s important: A separate analysis found that the top 30 brands in 2016 outperformed the global MSCI index over the last five years.With Jet’s charismatic founder now sweating such details, Walmart’s attempt to hit Amazon should gather pace in 2017.
