Walmart, Netflix Make a Huge Deal Ahead of the Holidays - TheStreet

Retail giant Walmart  (WMT)  has been preparing for the holidays and making strategic decisions to hopefully generate sales for the holidays.

Walmart has already extended return by dates for holiday exchanges to Jan 31, 2023, allowing customers confidence that if they are early holiday shoppers, products can still be returned or exchanged well after the holiday.

Walmart also launched Walmart Land and Walmart's Universe of Play with the Roblox  (RBLX) , the metaverse mega-platform with over 52 million daily users. Roblox is a gaming platform played online that allows players to program other games and play other games created by other users. Roblox is free to play, but purchases are available throughout the game. Purchases are made with Robux, the virtual currency within Roblox.

Walmart's Universe of Play is free to access. Walmart Land is available on PC, Mac, iOS, Android, Amazon devices, Xbox, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. The immersive games include play with L.O.L. Surprise!, Jurassic World, Paw Patrol, Magic Mixies and Razor Scooters.

Walmart Continues Great Partnerships Ahead of the Holidays

Walmart is expanding its Netflix  (NFLX)  hub to more than 2,400 storefronts just before the holidays. The Netflix Hub will provide customers with a low-priced streaming gift card and fan favorite products. Netflix, one of the top streaming services available, has hit shows that can only be viewed by being part of Netflix membership. 

Netflix is able to be streamed on multiple devices and is available worldwide. The phrase "Netflix and Chill" is the new version of going out to a video rental store, picking out a movie and going home to watch it. Customers prefer Netflix because of the lack of interruptions or commercials, that is. Customers can use their Netflix anywhere Wi-Fi available, so it's quite a bit cooler than the previous generation shopping the video store aisles. 

The low-priced Netflix Streaming Gift Card gives customers a chance to use the streaming service without having a credit or debit card. The hub will have exclusive Netflix merchandise from popular shows like "Squid Game," "Stranger Things" and "The Witcher". Products like a Lite Bright "Stranger Things" Hero, "Stranger Things" Advent Calendar, "Stranger Things" Concessions Kit, and "Squid Game" doll and/or T-shirts. 

Walmart Presses on After Slump

Walmart suffered from inventory mismanagement last quarter. The mismanagement of inventory led to the retailer having an overflow of unsold and unsellable goods. Walmart was not the only retailer who suffered this same fate, Target also endured the same inventory mishap. 

Walmart was overstocked on certain goods and unable to get them sold. This led to a slew of issues, and customers were the only solution. When a product did sell and a customer wanted to return or exchange it, the retailer may have opted to allow the exchange of the item, but still let the customer take home the original purchased product along with the exchanged product as well. If the customer wanted to simply return the item, Walmart might have opted to give a refund and still let the customer take the unwanted product home. 

This seems like it would make the inventory problem worse by giving away two for the price of one or giving a refund and losing the product, but Walmart saw the bigger picture that needed to be remedied. The unsellable inventory was taking up time and space from the retailer and when given the option to accept a return of the product, the retailer would have to process the return and then continue to store the unsellable goods.

Time and space both have a value with the retailer, and Walmart knew that the lesser of the two evils was to send the customer back with the unwanted product if at all possible. 

With new and expanded deals here and still coming to Walmart, the slump will seem like a distant memory as the retail giant continues to make strong moves with great partners.