Walmart is selling online apparel brand ELOQUII to FullBeauty Brands, marking the retailer’s third divestiture of a direct-to-consumer brand this year. The big-box retailer sold Bonobos to WHP Global and Express earlier this month and offloaded Moosejaw to Dick’s Sporting Goods in February. The sales are a reversal of a 2017-18 strategy led by Marc Lore, Walmart’s former head of e-commerce. Walmart bought ELOQUII in 2018 for a reported $100 million, one of numerous digital apparel brands with niche and loyal consumer bases. ELOQUII will join a portfolio of online plus-size apparel, shoes and swimwear brands under FullBeauty Brands, which has 5 million active customers.
Total Retail’s Take: From Walmart’s perspective, this transaction sheds itself of another D2C brand under its ownership, reflecting a transition in the retailer’s digital strategy. When ELOQUII and a number of the other aforementioned D2C brands were acquired by Walmart, the focus was on expanding the big-box retailer’s product assortment online in an effort to attract new consumers to its digital properties. With the digital infrastructure now solidified and online traffic no longer a concern, Walmart has turned its attention to optimizing execution and operating margin for its e-commerce business.
As for FullBeauty Brands, the purchase of ELOQUII gives it another niche brand in the $81 billion total addressable market for plus-size apparel. Furthermore, ELOQUII’s existing customer base skews younger and more digitally savvy than the other brands in FullBeauty’s portfolio.
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