
Walmart is selling online apparel brand ELOQUII to FullBeauty Brands, marking the retailer’s third divestiture of a direct-to-consumer brand this year. The big-box retailer sold Bonobos to WHP Global and Express earlier this month and offloaded Moosejaw to Dick’s Sporting Goods in February. The sales are a reversal of a 2017-18 strategy led by Marc Lore, Walmart’s former head of e-commerce. Walmart bought ELOQUII in 2018 for a reported $100 million, one of numerous digital apparel brands with niche and loyal consumer bases. ELOQUII will join a portfolio of online plus-size apparel, shoes and swimwear brands under FullBeauty Brands, which has 5 million active customers.
Total Retail's Take: From Walmart's perspective, this transaction sheds itself of another D2C brand under its ownership, reflecting a transition in the retailer's digital strategy. When ELOQUII and a number of the other aforementioned D2C brands were acquired by Walmart, the focus was on expanding the big-box retailer's product assortment online in an effort to attract new consumers to its digital properties. With the digital infrastructure now solidified and online traffic no longer a concern, Walmart has turned its attention to optimizing execution and operating margin for its e-commerce business.
As for FullBeauty Brands, the purchase of ELOQUII gives it another niche brand in the $81 billion total addressable market for plus-size apparel. Furthermore, ELOQUII's existing customer base skews younger and more digitally savvy than the other brands in FullBeauty's portfolio.

Joe Keenan is the executive editor of Total Retail. Joe has more than 10 years experience covering the retail industry, and enjoys profiling innovative companies and people in the space.