Shopping carts are seen outside a new Wal-Mart Express store in Chicago July 26, 2011. Wal-Mart Stores Inc reporterd a higher-than-expected quarterly profit May 19, 2106, as sales in the U.S. market rose, sending the retailer's shares up nearly 10 percent. REUTERS/John Gress/Files

(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc WMT.N has applied for a patent to compete with Amazon.com Inc's AMZN.O wifi-connected, one-button ordering device, Amazon Dash, according to data provider CB Insights.

The patent, filed in October, would be the first of Wal-Mart’s more than 800 patents and applications to focus on Internet of Things (IoT) and branches into shoppers’ homes, CB Insights said.

Wal-Mart’s system would require less effort than Amazon’s, a CB Insights blog post said.

“While Dash buttons still require users to press a physical button separate from the product, Wal-Mart aims to integrate IoT into the products themselves for automatic re-ordering with no user input at all,” the blog post said.