Walmart selling 2 online brands

Walmart acquired Bare Necessities for an undisclosed sum in October 2018 as it was building its portfolio of online brands. It purchased Bostonbased Shoebuy.com, renamed Shoes. com, in December 2016 for about $70 million.

Walmart Inc.’s sale of two online companies is the latest in a string of divestitures of businesses that analysts say have dragged down the retailer’s e-commerce revenue.

A Walmart spokesman confirmed Monday that it has signed agreements to sell online lingerie brand Bare Necessities to Israeli firm Delta Galil Industries Ltd., and to sell Shoes.com to affiliates of private-equity firm 0CriticalPoint Capital.

None of the companies involved disclosed the terms of the sales.

Walmart’s spokesman said owning the two companies “has enabled us to improve customer experience, add robust content and substantially grow our assortment” in the intimates and footwear categories. Both businesses now sell most of their products on Walmart.com, he said.

“This transition marks an exciting new chapter for both Shoes and Bare and allows each to focus solely on continuing its own growth under new ownership,” the spokesman said.

Delta Galil said in a news release that it expects the

acquisition of Bare Necessities to close in the next few weeks. The firm is a global manufacturer and marketer of branded and private-label products for adults and children.

CriticalPoint Capital, based in Southern California, did not immediately respond to an email, and the company’s recorded voicemail said no one was available to take calls.

Walmart acquired Bare Necessities for an undisclosed sum in October 2018 as it was building its portfolio of online brands. It purchased Bostonbased Shoebuy.com, renamed Shoes.com, in December 2016 for about $70 million.

The Bentonville-based retailer acquired other digital brands around the same time, starting with the $3.3 billion purchase of Jet.com in August 2016. That deal included home-furnishings retailer Hayneedle.com.

Marc Lore, who founded Jet.com and joined Walmart as head of its U.S. e-commerce business, aggressively pursued other digital brands. In 2017, Walmart purchased men’s clothing company Bonobos and women’s vintage-inspired fashion brand ModCloth. Walmart bought plus-size women’s clothing company Eloquii just weeks before acquiring Bare Necessities.

The investments were part of a strategy to boost Walmart’s e-commerce presence, making it more competitive with Amazon.com. But despite consistent growth in online sales, Walmart’s ecommerce business continued losing money, analysts said.

Walmart said in October 2019 it was selling ModCloth after months of rumors suggesting the retailer was looking to unload some of its acquired e-commerce brands. A few days later, Bonobos said it was cutting “a few dozen” jobs.

Earlier this year, Walmart discontinued Jet.com, absorbing most of its employees into Walmart’s operations.

The company doesn’t break out sales figures for its U.S. online business. However, Brian Yarbrough, a retail analyst with financial services firm Edward Jones, said ecommerce sales, which nearly doubled in this year’s second quarter, still make up only a minute part of the retailer’s $524 billion revenue.

Yarbrough said Walmart’s e-commerce business has lost less money in the first two quarters this year than it did in the same period last year. He attributed the growth to the pandemic-related growth in curbside grocery pickup at stores, which costs the company less than shipping items to homes.