Walmart’s e-commerce innovation arm, WalmartLabs, revealed Tuesday that it has procured PunchTab, a Silicon Valley-based loyalty start-up, in a bid to better engage Sam’s Club members across all channels.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Walmart said that six PunchTab technologists, including Co-Founder Mehdi Ait Oufkir, will join the customer acquisition and retention team at WalmartLabs as part of the transaction.
“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,” the retailer said in a statement, noting, “This marks WalmartLabs’ 15th acquisition in the last four years.”
First up, PunchTab is tasked with leveraging its software platform to improve how Sam’s Club tailors offers to members, no matter how they choose to shop, before rolling it out to the company’s other businesses, including Walmart.com.