Wharton Professor Barbara Kahn Examines Walmart/Google Partnership
Wharton School marketing professor Barbara Kahn shared her insight on the brand new partnership between Walmart and Google on Wharton Business Radio. Kahn was generally positive about the partnership, asserting that it was necessary for Walmart to acquire a tech platform to keep up with online competitors like Amazon.
“People feel competing against Amazon is a very tough proposition, and I want to see competition there,” Kahn said. She was optimistic about the partnership, particularly because Walmart is committed to having a multitude of items available for voice shopping with Google Assistant. According to Kahn, “The firm that owns the shopping list is the firm that has a big advantage…In the future, as the home becomes more connected and people become more used to talking to Alexa or Siri in building their shopping lists, you really need to be in that game. It’s forward thinking.”
Kahn debated with Mark A. Cohen, Director of Retail Studies at Columbia Business School, who favored a much less hopeful outcome for the partnership.
“It is a positive step, but it’s a baby step that I would say doesn’t necessarily lead anywhere,” Cohen said, “The intersection of Walmart’s customer base and Google’s users is so small that this is likely to be insignificant.” Cohen also mentioned that Google Express in itself has yet to develop a sizable customer base, so may not be particularly useful in helping Walmart compete with online platforms.
As far as increasing e-commerce sales, Walmart has been steadily improving its track record. In fact, the company posted a 60 percent growth in this area for the July-ending quarter. This trend is due to its recent purchases of online retailers like Jet.com.
Though Kahn agreed with some of Cohen’s concerns about the partnership, she held that Walmart’s prices can compete with Amazon’s, and there are a considerable number of people who are shopping using platforms like Google Assistant.
