Walmart fights back with in-store personal shopping service

Trends often start on the high end, then trickle down to the hoi polloi. Such is the case with Walmart, which continues to create experiences that will challenge Internet shopping. Walmart’s Code Eight, led by Rent the Runway co-founder Jennifer Fleiss, has started testing personal shopping services for moms in New York City. Code Eight is part of Walmart’s startup incubator Store No. 8. The idea with Code Eight’s service is for “busy NYC moms” to get product recommendations and buy them via text message. The shopping service is currently focused on health, beauty, household essentials and apparel/accessories.