Wal-Mart Is Changing Its Name. Here's Why.

It's actually a sign of the times more than a weak April Fool's Day joke; Wal-Mart is changing its name.The stores you see on Gull Road in Kalamazoo, Shaver Road in Portage, on 9th Street in Oshtemo Township and on Beckley Road in Battle Creek are already labeled "Walmart", but now Wal-Mart's corporate legal name will be changing on February 1st of 2018. It's actually two changes, one more significant to the Bentonville, Arkansas retailer than the other. The first change is minor. Wal-Mart will be dropping the hyphen between Wal and Mart. The other is more significant. Wal-Mart is dropping the word "stores" from their legal name, both acknowledging the changing landscape in retail, and maybe also promoting that concept, however subtly.

CNBC quotes Wal-Mart CEO Doug McMillon as saying "While our legal name is used in a limited number of places, we felt it was best to have a name that was consistent with the idea that you can shop us however you like as a customer,"

In this busy shopping season, it's another sign that the shopping habits of Americans have changed significantly and continues to changes towards e-commerce.

The U.S. Census Bureau said, in the third quarter of 2017, e-commerce grew another 15.5%, and now makes up 8.4% of total sales.