American Walmart is legally Wal-Mart Stores, but its popular name has long since been Walmart. However, the company will now alter that: in this eCommerce era, it aims to be more than merely a store chain.
eCommerce
“While our legal name is used in a limited number of places, we felt it was best to have a name that was consistent with the idea that you can shop us however you like as a customer. Our customers know us as Walmart and today they shop with us not only in our stores but online and with our app as well”, CEO Doug McMillon said. The old name was never used in stores or on products anyway.
The name change to Walmart connects the company to its past, because when it was founded in the sixties, it was known as Wal-Mart Inc.. It only added the “Stores” in the seventies. Its current logo, introduced in 2008, will not be changed.
The new name has to give a clear indication that Walmart is not just a range of physical stores. Over the past few years, the company has invested a lot in its online business in order to compete with Amazon. Only last year, it acquired web shop Jet.com, one of the larger Amazon competitors.