Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) subsidiary Jet.com has acquired footwear retailer ShoeBuy for $70 million.
The move is designed to help expand Jet’s selection of sneakers in shoes, which is part of a broader effort by Wal-Mart to add more focused products to its lineup. ShoeBuy’s online catalogue has more than one million items.
At least 800 footwear are being sold by the e-commerce retailer, and now Jet is slated to cash in on the business. The clothing and accessories market was the strongest part of the retail industry in 2016 for the first time ever.
Jet and Wal-Mart are expected to make more acquisitions such as this one as part of an effort to increase the sale of its high-margin products. Additionally, certain brands that are harder to access or to sell will now be more widely available and it will reach customers.
ShoeBuy has been around since 1999 when it became one of the first online sellers of footwear. It never grew to the heights of companies such as Zappos, but it became a mainstay in the industry.
A recent acquisition by the company that has paid dividends is the $90 million deal for home furnishings retailer Hayneedle. This helped Wal-Mart expand its home improvement and furnishings business.
Jet said ShoeBuy has been pretty self sufficient and the company won’t need to add too much capital on top to boost its business.
WMT stock is down 0.2% Thursday.
