AGL 38.30 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (0.21%)
AIRLINK 133.39 Increased By ▲ 4.42 (3.43%)
BOP 8.63 Increased By ▲ 0.78 (9.94%)
CNERGY 4.74 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (1.72%)
DCL 8.50 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (2.16%)
DFML 38.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.29 (-0.74%)
DGKC 84.40 Increased By ▲ 2.46 (3%)
FCCL 34.49 Increased By ▲ 1.07 (3.2%)
FFBL 76.48 Increased By ▲ 0.77 (1.02%)
FFL 12.82 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
HUBC 109.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.46 (-0.42%)
HUMNL 14.39 Increased By ▲ 0.38 (2.71%)
KEL 5.42 Increased By ▲ 0.27 (5.24%)
KOSM 7.78 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (1.43%)
MLCF 40.67 Increased By ▲ 0.87 (2.19%)
NBP 69.74 Decreased By ▼ -2.58 (-3.57%)
OGDC 190.50 Increased By ▲ 2.21 (1.17%)
PAEL 25.90 Increased By ▲ 0.27 (1.05%)
PIBTL 7.45 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (1.09%)
PPL 156.00 Increased By ▲ 3.33 (2.18%)
PRL 25.61 Increased By ▲ 0.22 (0.87%)
PTC 18.75 Increased By ▲ 1.05 (5.93%)
SEARL 82.70 Increased By ▲ 0.28 (0.34%)
TELE 7.80 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (2.77%)
TOMCL 32.85 Increased By ▲ 0.28 (0.86%)
TPLP 8.35 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-0.83%)
TREET 17.10 Increased By ▲ 0.32 (1.91%)
TRG 55.85 Decreased By ▼ -0.19 (-0.34%)
UNITY 28.80 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.07%)
WTL 1.34 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.74%)
BR100 10,690 Increased By 31 (0.29%)
BR30 31,687 Increased By 355.8 (1.14%)
KSE100 99,584 Increased By 314.6 (0.32%)
KSE30 31,030 Decreased By -2.1 (-0.01%)

Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, and Google, the internet's predominant search engine, are teaming up in an attempt to challenge Amazon's growing dominance in online shopping. The venture, announced early Wednesday, marries Google's hands-free voice activated Google Home program to Wal-Mart's vast network of US stores to allow customers to order groceries and other items to be home delivered through Google Express.
The initiative is a direct rebuttal to Alexa, Amazon's popular artificial intelligence program, and comes as the online retailer prepared to swallow Whole Foods Market in a transaction that will exponentially expand Amazon's presence in brick-and-mortar stores and is expected to lead to home delivery of food through Amazon's subscription prime program.
On Wednesday, Whole Foods shareholders voted to support the $13.7 billion takeover by Amazon. Scott Kessler, a CFRA analyst who covers Google parent Alphabet, said the announcement made sense for both companies, filling in a gap in Wal-Mart's technology profile with the addition of voice-ordering capacity and potentially boosting Google's standing in e-commerce. "What seems to be happening is a lot of the companies are coming together to offer an alternative to Amazon and this is one example of that," Kessler told AFP in an interview.
Wal-Mart Stores head of e-commerce Marc Lore said the initiative will permit customers to voice order hundreds of thousands of items beginning in late September. Wal-Mart plans to integrate its "easy reorder" service into the program, which allows customers to repeat orders of household staples and other frequent purchases with a few fast clicks.

Comments

Comments are closed.