Walmart, Microsoft in partnership to use cloud tech

[July 17, 2018]  (Reuters) - Retail giant Walmart Inc <WMT.N> said on Tuesday it entered into a strategic partnership with Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> for wider use of cloud and artificial intelligence technology, in a sign of major rivals of Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> coming together.

Shopping carts are seen outside a new Wal-Mart Express store in Chicago July 26, 2011. Wal-Mart Stores Inc reporterd a higher-than-expected quarterly profit May 19, 2106, as sales in the U.S. market rose, sending the retailer's shares up nearly 10 percent. REUTERS/John Gress/File Photo

The five-year agreement will leverage the full range of Microsoft's cloud solutions, including Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365, to make shopping faster and easier for customers, the Bentonville Arkansas-based company said.

As part of the partnership, Walmart and Microsoft engineers will collaborate to migrate a significant portion of walmart.com and samsclub.com to Azure, Walmart added.

While Walmart is doubling down on its e-commerce presence to better compete with Amazon, Microsoft has been working on a technology that would eliminate cashiers and checkout lines from stores, Reuters reported last month.

Microsoft's technology aims to help retailers keep pace with Amazon Go, the ecommerce giant's highly automated store format.

The Windows software maker has also shown the sample technology to retailers from around the world and has had talks with Walmart about a potential collaboration, Reuters reported.

Through the partnership, Walmart plans to defend itself from Amazon's retail ambitions and expertise in data, and boost its online presence.

(Reporting by Rishika Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.