Bonobos' co-founder, Andy Dunn, announces his departure from Walmart

In a surprising move, Andy Dunn, the founder of Bonobos and the head of digital consumer brands at Walmart, announced his departure from the retail giant. Dunn's departure is set for early next year, and he will remain with Walmart through January to ensure a smooth transition.

During his tenure at Walmart, Dunn offered insights into his time helping to lead Walmart's deepening foray into digital commerce. He praised Walmart's mission of delivering a better life for its core customers, tying it to the 2018 acquisition of Eloquii, a leading plus-size fashion company.

Dunn also highlighted Walmart's unique advantages, such as its supercenters and efforts around grocery pickup. He mentioned that the digital brands team at Walmart worked on an omnichannel strategy, which involved marrying their talent with Walmart's distribution to build brands like Allswell.

However, reports suggest that Walmart's e-commerce stands to lose up to $1 billion this year, with many individual units being loss-makers. Bonobos, which Walmart acquired in 2017, is among the unprofitable digital enterprises, according to Recode. This fall, Bonobos announced layoffs, affecting a few dozen of the menswear brand's 600 employees.

In response, a spokesperson for Bonobos stated that these decisions were necessary to set the brand and business up for long-term success. Micky Onvural is the current CEO of Bonobos.

There have been reports suggesting that Walmart has mulled the sale of Bonobos. However, Dunn did not specify why he was leaving or where he was headed next in his LinkedIn post. He did praise Walmart's low-price and consumer-oriented culture in his post.

Interestingly, Walmart has already sold vintage-themed e-tailer ModCloth, which it acquired not long before Bonobos. As for Dunn's next move, his new employer is currently not publicly available.

Recent reports by Bloomberg suggest tension within Walmart around lavish spending on the e-commerce unit and some of its more impractical projects, like the tech incubator Store No. 8. Walmart has pulled back resources from Jet, nixing its dedicated executive and winding down marketing spend, to focus on its flagship website.

With Dunn's departure, the incubator will be directly plugged into the Walmart mothership. As we move forward, it will be interesting to see how Walmart continues to navigate the digital commerce landscape.