market perspective, is that Rakuten will leverage Walmart to help sell its Kobo ereaders. Rakuten, if you remember, snapped up Canadian Kindle-competitor Kobo in a $315 million deal back in 2011 before rebranding it as Rakuten Kobo a few years later.Īs part of Rakuten’s deal with Walmart, the latter will begin selling ebooks and audiobooks, in addition to Kobo ereaders, which will go on sale in Walmart’s online and brick-and-mortar stores. The most interesting facet of the alliance, at least from a U.S. “Here in Japan, and everywhere we operate, we’re constantly exploring new ways to make every day easier for customers by offering great experiences in stores, online, via mobile - no matter how customers want to shop.” Booking sales You won’t find any there.“Rakuten is a strong ecommerce business, and we’re excited to collaborate with the top online shopping destination in Japan,” said Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon, in a press release. Regardless, if you’re looking to pick up a Kindle of any type, don’t bother making a detour from the kitchen accessories aisle at Walmart over the electronics department. That said, Amazon is a retail powerhouse in its own right, and it’s safe to assume that is a popular destination for those looking to pick up a Kindle device. The second question is: Does this really matter? Of course, it seems all but inevitable that the loss of Walmart will result in fewer Kindle products sold. Neither company has publicly admitted to a pro-Apple, anti-Amazon strategy. It’s possible that a similar situation is happening with Walmart, which began testing the same mini Apple Stores at some locations back in April. When Target decided to break ties with Amazon, many speculated that Target sought to appease Apple, with whom it had recently partnered to launch a number of “mini Apple Stores” housed within Target retail outlets. “In particular, the new Kindle Fire devices are designed specifically to drive traffic to the Amazon store, so Walmart was selling devices that were created specifically to take future sales away from them.”Īnother theory is that Apple is to blame. “An educated guess… is that Walmart dropped the Kindle because Amazon is directly competitive across their entire business,” Hargreaves told Digital Trends. Why did Walmart drop Amazon? One theory is that Amazon’s online retail business has simply become too strong a competitor for Walmart, and the company has simply decided to stop boosting a competitor’s bottom line.Īndy Hargreaves, an analyst with Pacific Crest, says he does’t “know the answer” for certain, but would bet on this theory. The smaller Kindle Fire HD starts at $200, while the 8.9-inch version starts at $300, or $500 for the 4G LTE version. Like Walmart, it continues to carry various accessories for Amazon’s products.Įarly this month, Amazon unveiled a number of new Kindle devices, including the Kindle Paperwhite e-reader, and the Kindle Fire HD tablet, which comes with either a 7-inch or 8.9-inch screen.
Target became the first major retail chain to stop selling Amazon’s Kindle products back in May. A number of Kindle accessories, like covers and e-book lights, remain available. A quick search on shows offerings from Apple, Samsung, Acer, Asus, Barnes & Noble, and many others. While the Kindle lineup is no longer available through Walmart or Sam’s Club stores, a broad range of other tablets and e-readers are still for sale. Amazon did not immediately respond to our request for comment, and has declined requests from other publications.
Walmart has confirmed the authenticity of the memo with Reuters. “This includes all Amazon Kindle models current and recently announced.” “We have recently made the business decision to not carry Amazon tablets and e-readers beyond our existing inventory and purchase commitments,” reads Walmart’s memo to store managers. This marks the second big box store to halt sales of Amazon devices since the beginning of the year. Walmart will no longer sell Amazon Kindle e-readers and tablets, according to a company memo obtained by Reuters.