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Walmart makes investment to strengthen in-house mobile capabilities

Walmart has made several recent investments in digital and mobile companies, including its recent purchase of OneRiot, suggesting that the retailer is looking to catch up with others in the competitive space.

Walmart said this week that it has acquired the key assets of mobile, social ad network OneRiot to enhance its efforts to connect consumers with the best products based on their interests. OneRiot offers technology that analyzes social media signals from networks such as Twitter and Facebook to deliver relevant ads based on consumer interests.

?Walmart has been investing recently in in-house capabilities in terms of the convergence of mobile, social and ecommerce,? said Noah Elkin, Austin, TX-based principal analyst at eMarketer. ?Walmart may not exclusively use what happens under its own rook but it reflects that they want to build that expertise.

?It seems that Walmart also wants to make sure that its considerable reach via its stores is equally balanced in the digital world,? he said.

?Other retailers are arguably further along in their mobile capabilities ? this may be more of a reaction by Walmart to play catch up.?

Mr. Elkin is not affiliated with Walmart. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

Mobile, social convergence
Walmart?s other recent moves in the digital space include its acquisition of Kosmix, which is a social media platform that organizes content by topic.

The retailer also recently invested in China-based online retailer Yihaodian.

The deal for OneRiot speaks to the emergence of mobile, social, commerce and advertising. It also addresses the need to target consumers more effectively and push them farther down the purchase funnel.

?Smart retailers are looking at mobile as far-more than just another channel to explore,? said Wilson Kerr, Boston-based mobile consultant.

?Rather, they see it as the very future of how product-based interactions will occur with increasingly-mobile consumers, as they interact with their stores and the litany of brands they carry every day,? he said. 

With the acquisition of OneRiot, Walmart becomes the latest company to find value in owning its own mobile ad network.

?By acquiring the company, Walmart walls off the OneRiot technology from other retailers and gains critical first-mover status over their competition,? Mr. Kerr said.

?Others will have to pay for the use of an ad network while Walmart will have their own,? he said. ?AdMob, Quattro and most-recently Where.com have all been snapped up for this same reason.?

Mr. Kerr was referring to Google?s acquisition of AdMob, Apple?s deal for Quattro and PayPal?s purchase of Where.com.

As part of Walmart?s purchase of OneRiot, the company?s technology team will move to Silicon Valley and become part of @WalmartLabs, the retailer?s research and development arm that was created after the purchase of Kosmix.

?Walmart is seeking to connect its loyal shoppers with the products they sell, based on the specific interests, location, and preferences of their customers, in real-time,? Mr. Kerr said. ?Mobile makes that happen and OneRiot has a platform that Walmart obviously saw as essential to this mission.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor at Mobie Marketer, New York