Walmart Removes Products From Google Express

There’s an old saying in battle that the enemy of your enemy is your friend. In eCommerce, all sorts of alliances emerge, with Amazon squarely in sight.

And according to recent news on the eCommerce front, Google has lost a friend, seemingly, in at least part of its ongoing eCommerce battle against Amazon.

Bloomberg reports that Walmart has “quietly” left one of Google’s key efforts against Amazon, having removed products from the latter’s Shopping Actions website, and also left Google Express, a delivery service.

As reported on 9to5google.com, Google has confirmed to users that Walmart products are no longer available through Google Express.

That news comes after the March 2018 debut of Shopping Actions, which launched with Walmart and Target as key partners. Those retail giants sell, or in Walmart’s case, sold, products across the aforementioned Google services, tied to Google’s search engine and digital assistant.

Walmart, of course, is the largest retailer in the world, and so this is a competitive loss for Google, as Walmart is also one of the biggest Amazon competitors, eyeing delivery and an expanded online presence. And yet, noted the newswire, a greater eCommerce presence for Walmart means the retailer may need to rely less on Google for that digitally-driven, omnichannel capability.

“Walmart and Google remain committed to our strategic partnership,” a Walmart representative said in an emailed statement. And the two companies also said that Walmart will continue to work on plans to build software that works with Google’s voice offerings, and that the retailer remains a strategic partner for Google, including with Google ads.

In the meantime, Google has said as recently as this fall that there are “hundreds” of merchants that have signed onto the Shopping Actions program, a roster that includes Best Buy, Sephora and Nike.