Kobo has announced that it has officially discontinued Walmart’s partnership with the United States. If a customer has purchased a Kobo e-reader from Walmart and used their Walmart account to log in to a Kobo e-reader, this will no longer be possible on October 31st, 2024. Customers will receive an email from Kobo outlining how they choose a new sign-in system, such as Apple, Facebook, Google, Kobo and dozens of overseas bookstores. Once you select a new sign-in login system, the ebooks will take around 24 hours to repopulate on your e-reader.
Walmart and Rakuten Kobo initially partnered in 2018 to sell e-readers in over 1,000 US locations and online. This was a way for Kobo to enter the US market and compete against the Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook. As soon as this partnership was established, Walmart launched Walmart ebooks, where users who bought an e-reader from Walmart could log in to their Walmart account on the e-reader to purchase ebooks. There was a dedicated Walmart ebooks app for Android and iOS that made things easier. Right off the bat, things were rocky. Kobo expected a US retail giant to have e-readers for people to try before buying. Many locations did not stock e-readers; the ones who did often had dead batteries and were never charged. Nobody was trained on the e-readers and couldn’t answer simple questions. Less than 100 stores in the US had dedicated e-reader sections; the rest were only available online.
The co-branded Kobo and Walmart ebook app for Android and iOS were discontinued earlier this year. If a user had the app already installed, it no longer worked and was considered a dead app. The Walmart ebook landing page disappeared, and there was a redirect to the Rakuten Kobo website. US residents who log in to their Kobo account with their Walmart credentials are often greeted with a message letting them know about the discontinued partnership.
Things are not all doom and gloom. Walmart is heavily discounting all of the Kobo e-readers it sells, hoping to eliminate all of its stock by the end of October.