Home

Walmart

Wal-Mart, Amazon, Target in Pre-Order DVD Price War

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 6, 2009 - 10:38am.
New York - After retail giant Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) cut the price of pre-order DVDs on its website to $10 on Thursday, rivals Amazon (NASD: AMZN) and Target (NYSE: TGT) followed suit by lowering their own pre-order DVD prices to $9.99, the Associated Press reported. On Friday morning, Wal-Mart responded by further discounting pre-order DVDs to $9.98. The price-cutting wars followed a similar battle over book prices amongst the three retailers -- which in recent weeks pushed prices as low as $8.98.

tags: Movies | DVD | Retail | Target | Walmart | Amazon.com. Marketing |

Walmart.com Prices Top 10 Pre-Order DVDs at $10

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 5, 2009 - 1:28pm.
Brisbane, Calif. - Walmart.com (NYSE: WMT) is now offering a $10 price tag and free home delivery on its top ten pre-order DVD and Blu-ray movie titles. Titles available through the offer include "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," "Star Trek" and "Julie and Julia." The DVD promotion comes as Walmart.com is engaged in a price-cutting war with Amazon and Target.

tags: Marketing | Movies | DVD | Blu-ray | Retail | Walmart |

WSJ: Walmart Cutting Back on DVD Displays

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 5, 2009 - 10:42am.
New York - Retail giant Walmart (NYSE: WMT), which sells nearly one-third of all DVDs purchased in the U.S., is eliminating corrugated cardboard display cases from the aisles of its stores, The Wall Street Journal reported. "We think the new strategy implies Wal-Mart no longer sees DVDs and Blu-ray discs as traffic drivers," J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan told The Journal. DVD revenues for the studios have been on the decline, in the face of the economy and competition from new automated rental kiosks like Redbox.

tags: Movies | DVD | Retail | Walmart |

Report: CDs Still 65% of U.S. Market; iTunes Sells 1 in 4 Tracks

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 18, 2009 - 9:49am.
*A correction was made to this story.

Port Washington, N.Y. - While digital music sales are taking a larger share of the U.S. market, and Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iTunes Store now accounts for one of every four songs sold, CDs still comprise 65% of all music purchases, according to a report from market research firm NPD Group. "Many people are surprised that the CD is still the dominant music delivery format, given the attention to digital music and the shrinking retail footprint for physical products," said NPD analyst Russ Crupnick. "But with digital music sales growing at 15 to 20 percent, and CDs falling by an equal proportion, digital music sales will nearly equal CD sales by the end of 2010."
tags: Music | Reports | Apple | Best Buy | Retail | Amazon.com | Target | Research | iTunes Store | Walmart | NPD Group |

Walmart.com, In-Store TV to Feature Jonas Brothers Concert

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 9, 2009 - 12:23pm.
Brisbane, Calif. - Retail giant Walmart (NYSE: WMT) on Tuesday posted an exclusive concert from Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Jonas Brothers, in addition to behind-the-scenes interviews, on Walmart.com. The promotion will also see the video shown in Walmart stores through Walmart TV beginning on June 15, a day before the release of the group's new album.

tags: Video | Marketing | Music | Disney | Retail | Walmart | Jonas Brothers |

Walmart to End Support for DRM-Wrapped Songs in October

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 1, 2009 - 12:51pm.
Los Angeles - Retail giant Walmart (NYSE: WMT) has announced that it will shut down the servers maintaining access to customers who purchased security-protected songs from its online store before the company abandoned the use of digital rights management (DRM) in February 2008, Hypebot reported.
tags: Music | DRM | Retail | Walmart |

Walmart Testing Used Video Game Trade-in Kiosks

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 18, 2009 - 1:26pm.
Los Angeles - Retail giant Walmart (NYSE: WMT) has partnered with kiosk vendor e-Play to test a line of automated video game trade-in kiosks in the Northeastern U.S., Kotaku reported. The machines, which apply trade-in values to a credit or debit card rather than store credit, are currently being tested in 77 Walmart stores. Other players in the used games space include GameStop, and newer entrants Best Buy, Amazon and Toys R Us.

tags: Games | Kiosks | Retail | Walmart | e-Play |

Walmart.com Makes "Tens of Thousands" of Wiis Available

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 8, 2008 - 1:07pm.

Brisbane, Calif. - Retail giant Walmart (NYSE: WMT) on Monday said it made "tens of thousands" of Nintendo Wii game consoles available for purchase online. While supplies last, the highly-sought console will cost $249.24 at Walmart.com, while two Wii games (select titles) will sell for $30. The retailer is also offering the handheld DS Lite for $129, and two DS games for $20, while supplies last.

tags: Games | Retail | Nintendo Wii | Walmart |

Walmart Selling G1 Phone for $30 Less Than T-Mobile

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 30, 2008 - 11:46am.

New York - Retail giant Walmart (NYSE: WMT) will sell HTC's G1 mobile phone -- the first handset to feature Google's (NASD: GOOG) Android operating system -- for $30 less than exclusive wireless carrier partner T-Mobile is charging for the device, Reuters reported. Walmart is now selling the G1 for $148.88 to customers who sign up for a two-year contract with T-Mobile. T-Mobile, meanwhile, is selling the G1 for $179.

tags: Mobile | T-Mobile | Google | Cellphones | Walmart | HTC | G1 |

Walmart Upgrades MP3 Store; Songs Now Start at 74 Cents

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 28, 2008 - 11:35am.

Brisbane, Calif. - Retail giant Walmart (NYSE: WMT) on Tuesday re-launched its MP3 Music Downloads store, which now offers more than 3 million tracks priced as low as 74 cents. The site now also supports Mac OS, Linux and Windows operating systems, is accessible through Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer browsers, and can sync music and artwork directly to default media players such as iTunes and Windows Media Player.

tags: Music | DRM | Retail | Walmart |

Walmart Launches IPTV-based In-Store Digital Ad Network

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 3, 2008 - 12:12pm.
Bentonville, Ark. - Retail giant Walmart (NYSE: WMT) on Wednesday introduced the Walmart Smart Network, an in-store IPTV-based network that it hopes to expand to 27,000 screens in more than 2,700 stores by 2010. The company sunk $10 million into research and development for the network, which will allow advertisers to target by store, screen, day and time-of-day. Walmart is working with Studio2 for custom programming; Thomson's Premier Retail Networks for operations and ad sales; and DS-IQ for analytical insights for advertisers. Walmart previously operated a satellite-based in-store network in 3,000 stores.

tags: Advertising | TV | IPTV | Retail | Walmart | Walmart Smart Network |