Walmart Acquires Eloquii, Strengthening Its #1 Position in Apparel

Executive Summary

• Walmart announced that it will acquire plus-size apparel brand and retailer Eloquii for an undisclosed amount. Walmart has recently acquired several other apparel brands, including Bonobos in June 2017.
• The acquisition will strengthen Walmart’s leading position in the US apparel market. Coresight Research data find that Walmart ranks number one in the clothing and footwear market by both sales and number of shoppers (despite the encroaching threat from Amazon).
• Like the Bonobos acquisition and the ModCloth acquisition before that, this move should extend Walmart’s reach among nontraditional shoppers—namely, younger consumers with higher disposable incomes than those of core Walmart shoppers.