Walmart snaps up Bare Necessities
Walmart is acquiring online retailer Bare Necessities for an undisclosed sum.
It’s the latest in a string of acquisitions of online apparel brands, following on from the likes of ModCloth, Bonobus and ELOQUII. As part of the deal, Noah Wrubel, CEO and Co-founder of Bare Necessities, will lead the intimates category for both Walmart.com and Jet.com, while also continuing to run Bare Necessities.
“Bare Necessities was founded in 1998 and offers more than 100,000 SKUs from more than 160 brands, including an extensive assortment of bras, swimwear, shapewear and sleepwear. Intimates, a category that has been aggressively growing online, has complex sizing and highly specialized products. It will bring deep category expertise, a content offering designed to educate intimates shoppers, as well as strong brand relationships and operational capabilities,” says Denise Incandela, Head of Fashion, Walmart US eCommerce.
She adds that the deal fits well into Walmart’s broader acquisition strategy, which includes two different types of companies: 1) category leaders with specialised expertise and assortment that can help enhance the customer experience on Walmart.com and Jet.com (think Hayneedle, Moosejaw and Shoes.com) and 2) digital brands that offer unique products customers can’t find anywhere else (think Bonobos, Modcloth and ELOQUII). Bare Necessities fits into the former.