Wal-Mart Acquires Moosejaw for $51 Million

Wal-Mart announced that it’s acquiring outdoor retailer Moosejaw for about $51 million in an all-cash deal. Moosejaw is headquartered in Madison Heights, Mich., and operates 10 store locations in that state, as well other stores in the Midwest. Wal-Mart is allowing the outdoor retailer to continue to operate its website and stores as a standalone and complementary brand going forward. Wal-Mart has done this with recently acquired ShoeBuy and Jet.com.

Total Retail’s Take: The Moosejaw deal will give Wal-Mart another entry point into apparel — a popular online retail category. Clothing and accessories has become the largest online retail category, and is now an area of increased competition. Eighty-five percent of Moosejaw’s business comes online, therefore, this acquisition figures to help Wal-Mart in its fight against Amazon.com, which has been expanding into clothing recently. It also leaves little doubt that Wal-Mart, with its third e-commerce acquisition in the past six months, is committed to investing significant resources to grow its online business.