Walmart Launches BuzzFeed-Branded Kitchen Tools

Using BuzzFeed’s extensive online reach, Walmart will debut a new line of kitchen tools that carry the website’s Tasty brand. The items will be available in the retailer’s brick-and-mortar stores and on its eCommerce website, Recode reported.

The products, which are made by Florida-based Epoca International, will retail for $4.44 to $99 and range from spatulas to mixing bowls. They will receive dedicated shelf space at 4,000 of the company’s locations.

Each time a consumer purchases a product, Epoca will pay BuzzFeed a portion of the wholesale price — likely below 10 percent. The idea behind the line is BuzzFeed can drive consumers into stores, while BuzzFeed will get a cut of the retail sales.

Walmart, BuzzFeed and Epoca have worked on the products for around a year, according to Walmart’s Steve Ronchetto. The retailer has made deals with some media brands, but not many of them. “These are few and far between,” Ronchetto said, who leads the buying team for the retailer’s cookware and dining lines.

In 2016, BuzzFeed, a site known for millennial-focused content such as quizzes and videos, acquired Scroll, an eCommerce company, seemingly without anyone noticing. While some saw the companies as an unlikely pair, their executives saw a match for connecting with millennial consumers: the BuzzFeed Product Lab.

Back in 2016, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti and Scroll CEO Ben Kaufman moved forward on getting the site into the eCommerce space. It conducted experiments related to commerce through a 10-person team known as the “BuzzFeed Product Lab.”

The experiments began with Homesick Candles, aimed at reeling in the emotions of consumers who are away from and missing home. But it wasn’t just online that the new BuzzFeed Product Lab sought to lure these new customers: A few blocks away from the NYC BuzzFeed headquarters, the lab opened its doors on a brick-and-mortar location dubbed “Homesick for the Holidays.”