Wal-Mart is making a subtle change to its name in 2018 to compete with Amazon.

Wal-Mart will take the ‘Stores’ out of its name in February.

Wal-Mart is taking the “Stores” out of its name to indicate that you can shop with them however you want, executives said.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is taking the stores out of Wal-Mart.

The retail behemoth with more than 11,700 locations around the world announced Wednesday that it will shorten its legal name to Walmart Inc. WMT, -0.84% The move highlights the company’s shift away from building traditional stores toward competing online with rival Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +0.01%

“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,” said Wal-Mart Chief Executive Doug McMillon.

Other big companies have changed names to signal a shift in strategy to customers or investors. Steve Jobs in 2007 decided to shorten Apple Computer Inc.’s name to Apple Inc. AAPL, +1.97% as it moved into phones and other devices. Google Inc. GOOG, +2.35% GOOGL, +2.21% became Alphabet Inc. in 2015 as the company branched out into more businesses beyond search, like self-driving cars and robots.

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