Walmart teams up with Fanatics for online Fan Shop

By

Robin Driver

Published
Jan 30, 2019

With the Super Bowl just around the corner, US retail giant Walmart announced on Tuesday a long-term partnership with licensed sportswear e-tailer Fanatics, Inc. and launched a specialty store dedicated to fan gear on the its e-commerce website.
 

The Fan Shop by Fanatics on Walmart.com will feature officially licensed apparel, accessories, collectibles and novelty items from professional sporting leagues including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR and MLS, as well as from renowned sportswear brands, such as Nike, New Era, Majestic and Fanatics.
 
As Fanatics holds the exclusive rights for the production and distribution of merchandise from a number of leagues, the partnership will put Walmart at an advantage when it comes to offering sports fans first dibs on the latest official products from their favorite teams and sporting events.

The announcement of the partnership between the two companies was made on the Walmart blog by Eric O’Toole, general manager for sports and fitness at Walmart US e-commerce.
 
“We offer more than 75 million items on Walmart.com. And, as we continue to grow our assortment, we are also focused on adding harder-to-find specialty items,” explained the executive. “Today’s announcement of our partnership with Fanatics is part of this ongoing commitment to create unique, specialized experiences on Walmart.com that make it easier to find the items our customers (in this case, sports fans) are looking for.”
 
The new deal comes as Walmart continues to make a concerted effort to drastically expand its online assortment in order to be able to compete with e-commerce titan Amazon, following on from previous initiatives such as the Premium Outdoor Store curated by Moosejaw.

Details concerning the financial terms and the duration of the partnership between Walmart and Fanatics have not been divulged.
 
The Fan Shop by Fanatics is now live on the Walmart website.