I don't think Walmart was actually caught off guard with online retail. But because they had (and still have) such a massive retail market share, the powers tha

I don't think Walmart was actually caught off guard with online retail. But because they had (and still have) such a massive retail market share, the powers that be inside Walmart undoubtedly stifled innovation in order to avoid cannibalizing their retail arm. (The Innovators Dillema). But wmt seems to have mostly woken up and correctly organized their power structure to empower the e-commerce arm. They even brought in an outsider (founder of jet.com).