E-commerce giant Rakuten and retail behemoth Walmart are taking aim at Amazon in a partnership that will see the two companies launch an online grocery delivery service in Japan while offering e-readers, e-books and audiobooks to American Walmart customers.
The move, announced Friday, will see Rakuten Inc. team up with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. subsidiary and supermarket chain Seiyu GK. The joint venture will replace and expand Walmart¡¯s existing grocery delivery service with an operation called Rakuten Seiyu Netsuper. The service, with a planned launch in the latter half of this year, will allow customers to place orders on Rakuten¡¯s online marketplace. The venture will open a warehouse to handle orders in addition to using existing Seiyu stores.
The collaboration will also allow Walmart to take direct aim at Amazon.com Inc.¡¯s Kindle by bringing Rakuten-owned Kobo¡¯s e-reader to its U.S. stores, along with a catalog of nearly 6 million e-book and audiobook titles to Walmart.com customers.
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