GREENSBORO, N.C. – Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s biggest retailer, is bringing back some products it had removed from shelves last year as shoppers turn to competitors for a wider selection of merchandise.

The company met with suppliers about reinstating items to keep customers from going to other stores, said Leon Nicholas, a director at consulting firm Kantar Retail who has spoken with manufacturers about the move. Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., said it frequently assesses product assortment.

Wal-Mart is returning some health and beauty supplies, cereal, pet treats, soda and laundry detergent, Nicholas said.

The retailer said last month its U.S. stores recorded a drop in sales and had a “slight decrease” in customer traffic in the quarter that ended in January.

“Wal-Mart cut too deep and now they’re going back to manufacturers,” Michael Kantor, chief executive officer of the Promotion Optimization Institute, said in a telephone interview.

The organization trains retailers and producers, including Wal- Mart suppliers, to work together on marketing and merchandising. Kantor is based in New York.

Last year, Wal-Mart reduced the number of merchandise varieties, known as stock keeping units, or SKUs, sold in the United States in categories such as laundry detergent and bedding. U.S. stores cut inventories by 7.6 percent while increasing sales by 1.1 percent.

“In some instances, we are returning SKUs to the floor; it is evolutionary and ongoing,” said Linda Blakley, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, in a telephone interview. “Based on customers’ response, we may return an item to the shelf. At the end of the day, we want to have what she wants at a good price.”

The decision to bring back items isn’t tied to store-traffic issues in the fourth quarter, she said.

Nancy Powella, a pastor in Tucker, Ga., started visiting Wal-Mart less after she couldn’t find some merchandise.

Since late last year, she’s cut back shopping at Wal-Mart to once every two or three weeks, from two or three times a week previously, she said in a telephone interview.

Powella, 61, said she went to a Lowe’s store last week for Mr. Clean Magic Eraser cleaning product after failing to find it at Wal-Mart.

She has started buying dental floss and mouthwash at Walgreens.

“Please bring the old Wal-Mart back,” Powella said. “I loved the clutter. I always thought they’d have what I wanted. If I wanted a trendy store, I’d go to Target.”

Bringing back items is a way to give shoppers the sense of variety that they want, said Kantar Retail’s Nicholas.

“It shows that they’re a company open to making modifications,” Nicholas said in a telephone interview.

Sales at Wal-Mart’s U.S. stores open at least a year declined 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter, more than its forecast of a sales decline of no more than 1 percent.

Declining store traffic reflected disruptions caused by store remodeling, Wal-Mart Chief Financial Officer Tom Schoewe said last month.