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Walmart acquires menswear online retailer Bonobos

Charisse Jones, and Nathan Bomey

Walmart is buying menswear online seller Bonobos for $310 million, intensifying retail competition with Amazon on the same day its rival announced its own blockbuster deal.

The move was immediately overshadowed by Amazon's seismic acquisition of Whole Foods, sending shares of Walmart and numerous other retailers plunging.

The Bonobos purchase reflects Walmart's bid to grow its customer base into niche areas where its stores are not as strong. The company said it would offer Bonobos brands through its recently-acquired Jet.com division and "possibly other Walmart brands in a variety of countries over time." Bonobos has 35 physical stores.

Bonobos' Houston store, which opened the first week of November, 2015. The online company sells stylish, well-fitted clothing for men and had a few brick and mortar stores where men can try on clothes for size and then have them shipped to their homes.



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At the same time, it has been enhancing its online offering by buying other sites. In August, it acquired the online marketplace, Jet, for $3 billion.  And in December, Jet bought online footwear seller ShoeBuy for roughly $70 million. Since then, Walmart scooped up Moosejaw, an online outdoor gear and clothing retailer and ModCloth, an online seller of women’s clothing and accessories .

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There is concern Bonobos and Walmart aren't tailor made for one another.

"Unfortunately, while this may make sense on a spreadsheet or in a conference room, in the real world it represents the end of the Bonobos brand,'' Beck said, adding that some Bonobos customers were not pleased with news of the deal when it was pending.

Bonobos CEO and founder Andy Dunn, who is joining Walmart's digital team acknowledges that he was "incredibly anxious'' that Bonobos customers would be turned off by the tie-up with Walmart, and customers have vented on social media that they are upset about the acquisition.

However, since news of the pending deal first leaked roughly two months ago Dunn says "we've seen . . . no drop offs to our growth rate'' in acquiring new customers. "I'm now wondering if the increased attention we're getting, even if it's from people asking that question (about brand compatibility) is lifting the whole business.''