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Walmart enters the fray as holiday price war heats up

Walmart bracing for competition at least as bad as last year's holiday season, when heavy discounting depressed earnings across the retail industry.

October 31, 2014

Walmart is planning to expand its offering of discounted products during the holiday season and may widen the scope of its price-matching plan to include online rivals, in the latest sign of an escalating price war among big U.S. retailers, according to Reuters.

[Walmart] said it was bracing for competition to be as tough or tougher than in 2013, when heavy discounting depressed earnings across the industry. Walmart's profits dropped in the holiday quarter last year, and it has posted six straight quarters of flat or declining same-store sales.

“It is starting to heat up right now, and I would expect it to be at least as competitive as last year," Steve Bratspies, executive vice president of general merchandise for Walmart's U.S. operations, said on a call with media on Thursday, referring to competition during the holiday season.

Walmart said it plans to have 20,000 "rollbacks", or a product discounted for at least 90 days, on offer starting on Saturday. While it did not disclose a comparable number, it said the program was bigger and included a wider lineup of products, with a focus on toys and electronics, than last year.

Competitors have been increasing their own promotions, focusing on increasing online sales. Target for instance announced earlier this month it would drop shipping fees for items bought online from Oct. 22 to Dec. 22.