As if Wal-Mart weren’t the low cost leader among brick and mortar shops, the nation’s largest retailer wants consumers using their Internet services as well. Since Wal-Mart is not the number one destination online as it is for many offline, the Walton family has decided to cut into the market share of Craig’s List and eBay a bit.

Wal-Mart has teamed up with Oodle to offer Wal-Mart Classifieds, Beta to consumers who would like to try out their free services. Like Craig’s List or eBay’s Kijiji free local classified services, Wal-Mart Classifieds sees this service as a way to appeal to a new market segment and perhaps siphon off some cost-conscious shoppers into their own online store.

The current beta of Wal-Mart Classifieds has around 30 million items listed from local sellers. In a fitting bit of irony (or turn about is fair play) Oodle was founded by former eBay executives in the San Francisco and San Mateo areas of Northern California.

Oodle is a large aggregator of online classified ads pulling from resources such as eBay, Myspace, other websites and local newspapers. The Oodle classifieds feature car, home, pets, jobs, personals and other common categories.

Wal-Mart Classifieds has a much more visually pleasing interface with plenty of photo previews, than say Craig’s List. In the location that I searched the results were pulled primarily from the Penny Saver.

Wal-Mart Classifieds presents another opportunity for those who want to go “garage sale-ing” online. But, it’s also an opportunity for the small business person to market products and services or even test market products and services before spending too much money on more traditional marketing methods.

Look for Wal-Mart Classifieds to not only be a low-cost first stop for local shoppers online, but a valuable marketplace for small businesses and startups wanting to launch their local businesses as well.

Filed under: News