The new name officially goes into effect on February 1. So why the change in the first place?

This "rebranding" has gone largely unnoticed because it's actually very minor. "Wal-Mart" or "Wal*Mart" will become "Walmart." They're dropping the hyphen, that's it. Some stores have subtly made the change.

Wal-Mart Announces Plan To Create 10,000 Jobs In U.S. In 2017
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The reasoning behind the change is actually kind of interesting and a sign of the times.

According to USA Today, Walmart is legally changing its corporate name because of online shopping. Dropping the hyphen will make it easier to navigate to Walmart's site which has seen a 50% increase in traffic over the last year.

In fact, Walmart wants to compete with Amazon for online sales. Over the past few years, the retailer has increased their number of products available for purchase on the web to 70 million!

Walmart's CEO says that while the Walmart name change may be primarily focused on e-commerce, they are still very much invested in their physical stores. They offer a discount to customers who pick their order up at the store. Also, Walmart will introduce the option to pick up online grocery orders at 1,000 locations next year.

Be honest, did you notice the change?

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