Five At Five: Does Walmart Have A Secret Weapon?

Welcome to Five at Five, your late look at today’s payments and commerce news. Today’s coverage includes discussion of an edge that Walmart may have on Amazon, along with big funding news in the world of last-mile logistics. Best Buy wants to make a major acquisition, China has the lead in a hot consumer product and there is a new mobile accounting tool for SMBs.

Is Brick-And-Mortar Walmart’s Secret Weapon?

Former Walmart CEO Bill Simon thinks the retailer’s big brick-and-mortar network of stores gives it an underrated edge against Amazon in a multichannel world where consumers want smooth online-to-offline commerce experiences.

DoorDash Secures $250M In Growth Round

With more than 250 percent year-over-year growth, DoorDash is now the fastest growing last-mile logistics platform in the U.S. Since January, the company’s geographic footprint has nearly doubled to more than 1,000 cities across the U.S. and Canada, and is on pace to reach 2,000 cities this year.

Best Buy Plans To Buy GreatCall For $800M

GreatCall makes emergency response systems and smartphones geared toward seniors. The firm has over 900,000 subscribers, between its wearable devices and Jitterbug mobile phones.

Chinese Smart Speaker Shipments Reach 16.8M

Smart speaker sales continue to grow at a record pace, and new data shows that China is now the leader in that market, accounting for 52 percent of total growth worldwide.

Thomson Reuters Steps Into Mobile SMB Accounting

The solution is a cloud-based app that provides accounting services with added functionality, including invoicing, online payments, expense management, vendor tracking, reporting, banking and other tools. In its announcement, Thomson Reuters said it collaborated with entrepreneurs on the solution to meet their day-to-day operational needs and provide real-time data.