With super fast shipping, helpful ratings and reviews, and thorough product descriptions, Wayfair has become one of the largest eCommerce home goods sites in the world.
Similarly, Walmart is the largest general retailer on the planet, and you might have noticed the same goods from Wayfair on Walmart’s website.
So, it begs the question: does Walmart own Wayfair? Here is what I discovered!
Does Walmart Own Wayfair?
Walmart does not own Wayfair, and it has never done so. While it appeared for a while in the late 2010s that Walmart might be considering a buyout of Wayfair, no deal was ever proposed. Walmart and Wayfair are entirely separate business entities, although some people claim that Wayfair sold furniture via Walmart’s online Marketplace.
To learn more about the supposed connection between Wayfair and Walmart, whether you can return Wayfair items to Walmart, and whether Walmart price matches with Wayfair, keep reading!
What Is The Connection Between Wayfair And Walmart?
According to some sources, when Walmart launched its online Marketplace in an attempt to compete with Amazon, Wayfair seized an opportunity.
The story goes that Wayfair opted to sell furniture and other home goods on Walmart’s site, giving the brand access to Walmart’s enormous customer base.
This was supposedly around 2015, but beyond this online rumor, I can’t find much information to back up this claim.
Jake Blakeman, a Wayfair employee who commented on a Quora post, claims that “Wayfair and Walmart partnered for a while in the e-commerce business.”
He asserts that “…Wayfair even handles issues with orders from Walmart.” I can’t find any evidence of this, however.
Wayfair does not sell items on Walmart’s Marketplace now, and I can’t find any actual, confirmable data to suggest that they did in the 2010s.
For now, this supposed “connection” between Wayfair and Walmart is more like an internet rumor.
Another quasi-connection between the two occurred in 2017 when Forbes.com posted an article about why Wayfair shouldn’t sell out to Walmart.
The article wasn’t in response to Walmart suggesting they were interested, but rather a market analyst’s suggestion that Walmart should acquire the home goods retailer.
In any case, the author suggested that a merger or acquisition between Walmart and Wayfair would impede the latter’s growth and that Walmart would flub the integration.
The connection between Wayfair and Walmart is more fiction than fact.
And it seems to me that the two have moved so far apart in terms of business model and target market that there will likely not be any further connections forged in the future.
Who Does Own Wayfair?
Wayfair is not owned by Walmart; rather, it is still in the hands of the entrepreneurs who founded it back in 2002.
That would be Niraj Shah and Steve Conine, who started the furniture sale business out of Boston, Mass.
While Shah and Conine share the chairman position in the company, Shah is the current CEO.
Can You Return Wayfair Items To Walmart?
While Wayfair and Walmart might appear to sell similar, if not identical, items at times, you cannot return Wayfair items to Walmart.
The two are completely separate companies, with completely different leadership, and Walmart is not the parent company to Wayfair.
Even if you had purchased a Wayfair item on Walmart’s Marketplace, returns via that avenue are not initiated with Walmart.
Instead, you reach out to the individual seller about returns and refunds.
It’s a shame, though, because Walmart makes returns incredibly easy.
My experience with Wayfair’s returns is that it’s expensive (you pay for the return shipping, not them) and in some cases, completely unmanageable.
(For example, if you wanted to return an 80-lb. bedframe – how would you even get it to the packing center?)
Hopefully, that is one area in which Wayfair will look to Walmart’s superior customer service and learn a thing or two.
Does Walmart Price Match With Wayfair?
Walmart does not price match with Wayfair.
Secondly, even if Wayfair were selling items on Walmart’s Marketplace and you saw one that looked exactly like an item on Walmart.com, it would be exempt.
The reason is that Walmart stores only price match with lower prices on Walmart.com or Jet.com.
Additionally, Marketplace items are not included in Walmart’s price matching policy, and that is the only place where Wayfair items would be sold, if they even were connected (which they are not).
If you want to learn more about Walmart, you might also be interested in reading up on whether or not Target is owned by Walmart, if Walmart owns Tractor Supply, and if Walmart owns Home Depot.
Conclusion
Walmart does not own Wayfair, and they never have. While some Internet sources claim that the two are connected, no real data exists to suggest that there has ever been any partnership.
Wayfair has a robust ecommerce platform going, and I think it’s unlikely they would succumb to an offer even from Walmart – at least any time in the near future.
