Giant Retailers Blogging About Products
Posted on March 6, 2008
Major retailers like Amazon.com and Wal-Mart are using blogs as a way to showcase some of their products and generate interest in new products. Wal-Mart has a blog called Check Out which is written by a team of experts at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club. Seattle Times writes that Check Out provides a window into the opinions of Wal-Mart's tastemakers.
The result is an intensely personal window into the lives, preferences and quirks of the powerful tastemakers at Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, who have spent years shielded from public view.The concept is similar to Amazon.com's Daily Blog where Amazon.com's editors discuss cool products and products in the news. Wal-Mart's been behind some lame projects in the past such as the lame social network called The Hub and a travel flog. This latest blog is much better than those failed PR stunts. Wal-Mart's Check Out blog does have comments and you can read the comment policy here.Their decisions about what makes it onto Wal-Mart's shelves have enormous effect, earning (or costing) vendors millions of dollars. It was a blogger on Check Out, after all, who first disclosed last month that Wal-Mart would stock only high-definition DVDs and players using the Blu-ray format, rather than the rival HD DVD system. The decision was considered the death knell for HD DVD.
On the blog, Marvin Deshommes, a merchandise manager in the lawn and garden department, tells readers that he belongs to the Christian Life Cathedral church. His favorite quote from the Bible is Luke 12:48 -- "To whom much is given, from him much will be required."
Joe Muha, a video-game buyer, discloses that Ayn Rand is one of his favorite authors. Danielle Pribbernow, a toy buyer, talks about her cat, Sierra.
Wal-Mart says the Web site helps buyers solicit quick feedback from consumers on the merchandise -- and shows a softer side of the giant company, which has 5,000 stores, 1.2 million workers and annual sales of nearly $400 billion.