Wal-Mart, Target, other retailers take on Silicon Valley

Wal-Mart, Target and home-shopping network QVC are examples of a half dozen retailers opening technology test labs in Silicon Valley. The Associated Press reports the modern spaces aim to compete for top area talent and are meant to emulate the atmosphere and productivity of online startups.

These locations are addressing the need to compete with online rivals like Amazon.com, researching convenient ordering and cheap prices that entice customers shopping on tablets, PCs and mobile devices.

Online sales have grown from 5.9 percent of the $2.64 trillion in total retail sales in 2009 to 7.6 percent of the $3.1 trillion in revenue last year, according to Forrester Research.

Wal-Mart opened the first of these tech labs in San Bruno in 2011, with the name Wal-MartLabs. They also have plans to open another lab in San Francisco in July. Projects include search engine improvement on Wal-Mart's website and app improvements to show in-aisle discount offers.

Wal-Mart's presence in California has also led to the acquisition of a startup called Grabble that developed a form of email receipts.

Target's lab opened in May, and is focusing on finding new ways to implement wearable gadgets like smart watches into store activities.

Read more from the Associated Press.