Walmart Goes MoDRN...Two Years Too Late - Forbes

Walmart has once again taken too long to get with the program. (photo credit: Getty)Getty

You have to say this: Walmart’s new MoDRN collection of contemporary furniture and decorative accessories is certainly a big step for the world’s largest retailer.

The nearly 650-piece collection is claimed to be the largest private-label program the store has ever introduced, and it clearly targets head-on that all-important Millennial customer whom seemingly every retailer in America is lusting after.

But as with many—perhaps most—things that Walmart does when it comes to products and merchandising, it is a day late and a dining room short of a trend it should have addressed years ago.

Certainly, the West Elms and Crate & Barrels have been playing in this space for years, but despite what you might have read in the consumer press, they are not the competition for this collection. The real competition is Target, Wayfair and Amazon, and each of them moved into this merchandising look years ago:

Target introduced Project 62 in September 2017, nearly a year and a half ago. Squarely focused on mid-century modern and contemporary looks, the collection includes furniture and decorative accessories like lamps and home décor—pretty much the same assortment as the new Walmart program, but coming 18 months earlier.
Amazon made its own dramatic statement in the furniture and furnishings business two months later when it introduced the twin brands Rivet and Stone & Barn. While the latter was hitting the modern farmhouse aesthetic made popular by Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Home program (and later its private-label program for—wait for it—Target), Rivet was mid-century modern all the way. And again, it came 16 months before Walmart.
Wayfair, which is all home all the time, has any number of brands playing in this space, including Mercury Row and Zipcode Design. The online seller, which now does 60% of its business through its own private brands, introduced these home furnishings labels in February 2016—three years before Walmart.

Walmart is the best logistics company in the world, and if you were working off a tight budget and had to pick one store to shop in, it would be far and away the best choice.

But when it comes to merchandising and design, Walmart continues to play catch-up. Let’s face it: The company gave Amazon a 10-year head start online and will never be more than an afterthought in e-commerce, Jet and Mark Lore notwithstanding.

It’s the same story here: Walmart has let the competition—particularly Target—get to market first and missed the opening salvo of business that comes with any new program. No doubt it will sell a bunch of MoDRN furniture, but don’t be surprised if, two years from now, most of it is stuck in some corner at the back of an aisle somewhere.

Walmart sells close to $500 billion of stuff a year. Just imagine how much more it would be doing if it could ever get on-trend faster.

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