Wal-Mart Adds to Portfolio, Buys Bonobos for $310M

The Bonobos website.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville announced Friday that it will buy online apparel retailer Bonobos Inc.  for $310 million in cash.

Word of the deal has been circulating for months. It’s the latest in a string of acquisitions by Wal-Mart, which is snapping up online retailers as it battles rival Amazon.com.

Meanwhile, Amazon made its own announcement Friday. The company said it would buy Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion, making a deeper push into highly competitive U.S. grocery space, where Wal-Mart is the leader.

In a news release, Wal-Mart said Andy Dunn, founder and CEO of Bonobos, will report to Marc Lore, president and CEO of Walmart U.S. eCommerce, “and oversee the company’s collection of digitally-native vertical brands.”

Wal-Mart said Bonobos brands will be offered on Jet.com, the online store founded by Lore that Wal-Mart acquired last year, and “possibly other Walmart brands in a variety of countries over time, and include Bonobos and recently-acquired ModCloth.”

The acquisition, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close “toward the end of the second quarter or the beginning of the third quarter of this fiscal year,” Wal-Mart said.

“We’re seeing momentum in the business as we expand our value proposition with customers and it’s incredible to see how fast we’re moving,” Lore said in a news release. “Adding innovators like Andy will continue to help us shape the future of Walmart, and the future of retail.

“I’m thrilled to welcome Andy and the entire Bonobos team. They’ve created an amazing product and customer experience, and that will not change. In fact, Andy will be a great influence on the company, especially in leading our collection of exclusive brands offered online.”

Wal-Mart said adding Bonobos is part of a broader e-commerce strategy “to enhance the customer value proposition.” Parts of the strategy include “offering customers low prices and convenient ways of getting the items they buy every day”; offering a “vastly expanded assortment while building expertise in key long-tail categories, like apparel and home”; and adding “best-in-class owned, vertical consumer brands to be sold on those brands’ properties, and over time, Jet.com.”

Since purchasing Jet.com last year for $3.3 billion, Wal-Mart has remade its e-commerce division, putting Lore charge and adding more online retail brands to its portfolio.

In March, it bought ModCloth, a specialty fashion, shoes and accessories retailer aimed at 18-35-year-old women. In Feburary, it purchased online outdoor retailer Moosejaw for about $50 million in cash. In January, it bought ShoeBuy.com for $70 million. And Jet.com purchased online furniture retailer Hayneedle in February.

The moves come as Wal-Mart aims to remake itself as a retailer powerhouse both on- and offline. “We have started to invent the future of shopping again,” CEO Doug McMillon said during the company’s shareholders’ meeting earlier this month.

In May, Wal-Mart reported first-quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations and said online sales rose 63 percent on what the retailer called “organic” growth at its website.