Walmart Steals a Key Move From Amazon's Playbook

Online shoppers may find themselves doing a double-take.

Superstore Walmart  (WMT) - Get Free Report has been fastidious in its efforts to compete with e-commerce giant Amazon  (AMZN) - Get Free Report. From its online shopping options to fast shipping and potential drone delivery in the future, the two retailers are often neck-and-neck when it comes to innovation.

Walmart has made another move to follow Amazon's lead on the technical front. The Arkansas-based company revealed a redesign of its online app and website on April 3. And the layout looks awfully like Amazon’s app interface, despite the signature Walmart-blue hue.

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The new Walmart home page features larger, more engaging photos of products. There are also clever categories for browsing, giving the app a feel more akin to scrolling through Instagram. And in fact, the company's digital makeover is fashioned to remind shoppers of social media.

Walmart's Chief E-Commerce Officer Tom Ward described the new layout in a blog post, saying that "the new homepage offers a product-focused experience that better mirrors the way our customers love to shop, highlighting the items that matter most to them at any given moment."

"The feature-packed homepage has rich imagery, live video, and is optimized to better bring Walmart’s massive assortment to life," Ward says of the update, "including a new social-inspired scroll so customers can browse our selection just as they’d scroll their favorite social media apps."

Ward also believes the new look will attract third-party suppliers. From where he's standing, the site "also provides our suppliers and Marketplace sellers new opportunities to showcase more relevant products and better tell their stories."