Last updated on August 16th, 2012 at 12:04 pm
@WalmartLabs, a division of Walmart Stores, has acquired the Small Society team.
“We will continue to build great mobile apps, but now we will focus all of our attention on a single company—the largest one in the world,” said Raven Zachary, president of Small Society.
Walmart has made a number of targeted acquisitions in the last few months, including Kosmix, OneRiot and Grabble, to advance work in social and mobile e-commerce and has recently launched Shopycat on Facebook and a new iPad app.
The team from Small Society now joins that list as part of @WalmartLabs.
“When Small Society was founded three years ago, one of the key areas we wanted to focus on was re-imagining the retail experience,” Zachary said. “Walmart provides our team with the biggest canvas as the world’s largest company and the world’s largest employer. There are over 9,700 Walmart retail units under 69 different banners in 28 countries generating $419 billion in revenue annually. Walmart serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week. More and more of these customers have smartphones.”
Walmart launches ‘The Green Room’ blog
Walmart has a new blog called the Green Room written by Andrea Thomas, SVP of sustainability for the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer.
“In my travels, I have discovered a collective will that is growing stronger by the day. I truly believe that together we will find the best and most innovative solutions to the problems the world faces,” Thomas blogged. “At Walmart, we have made commitments that span the spectrum. They range from broad goals, such as zero waste and 100 percent renewable energy, to specific pledges to source beef that does not contribute to deforestation or to sell only sustainable palm oil in our private label brands.”
To get the conversation going for those reading the blog, Thomas ended the first post with three questions: What do you think are the biggest challenges to sustainability? What do you wish we, as a company, could do to address an environmental or social issue? How could we help you reach your own sustainability goals?
