Wal-Mart acquires PunchTab software developer out of Silicon Valley

Wal-Mart promised that it would continue to invest in its e-commerce capabilities and its purchase of PunchTab, revealed Tuesday (Sept. 22) by the retail titan, is another strategic piece to that strategy.

Based in Silicon Valley, PunchTab is known for building a software platform that helps brands like Walmart and Sam’s Club better understand and engage with customers in a unified way online, on mobile and in physical stores.

“As part of the acquisition, six PunchTab technologists will join @WalmartLabs and we’ll also be acquiring PunchTab’s technology. We’ll use the technology to enhance our existing ‘customer relationship management’ tools, or the technology behind how we reach customers across e-mail, on our websites, on mobile phones and in our physical stores,” said Jeremy King, head of WalmartLabs.

This is the 15th acquisition by WalmartLabs in the past four years as the retailer continues to build out its e-commerce team in San Bruno and around the world.

“PunchTab’s first task is to leverage its software platform to enhance the ways we tailor offers to Sam’s Club members across our clubs, our mobile app and on Samsclub.com. Like most of the technology we build at @WalmartLabs, we plan to apply what we build for Sam’s Club to Walmart’s other businesses, including Walmart.com,” said Jamie Iannone, CEO of Samsclub.com.

PunchTab was founded in 2011 by Mehdi Ait Oufkir, who will be joining the @WalmartLabs team. Before founding PunchTab, Mehdi was an early member of YouSendIt.com, helping to scale the company to 18 million registered users.

Mehdi and five software engineers from PunchTab will join the customer acquisition and retention team at @WalmartLabs.

“With PunchTab joining the @WalmartLabs family, we continue our streak in adding some of the best talent in the Valley. We’re more equipped than ever to build deeper, richer relationships with our customers,” King said.

Walmart.com posted e-commerce sales of $12.2 billion in fiscal 2015, up 22% from the prior year. The retailer also grew its online assortment in the U.S. to roughly 8 million items. Interestingly, 75% of walmart.com sales come from non-store inventory, thus providing incremental sales growth beyond its stores.