I had a half hour debate in my head on this topic the other day; this is a great post thank you! I work at Walmart HQ and I think people underestimate their size and don't always consider what position that puts them in. They are investing heavily in private brands from grocery to apparel which will drive margins up continually over the next decades. I have heard that they are investing in some pretty crazy stuff to enhance the in store experience such as VR. We are actively cutting billions of dollars of inventory (I work in the supply chain) They are really taking a look at internal operations and reworking the organization the perform at a higher level. I don't know much about Amazon operations but I have a friend who is a vendor and he said they are a bad business partner while Walmart is a great business partner. Anything Amazon does with pricing Walmart is doing the same thing and we can push lower and that will not change for a decade. I don't think one or the other will "win" although most other retailers will die out. Amazon will get a big piece of the pie in the future but Walmart will never die, people love low prices (Walmart is synonymous with this) and customer service is going to be top notch at Walmart in 5 years as we invest in training, stores and wages.
I am sure Walmart has lots of advantages but many of the things you are saying are speculative.
Maybe VR can enhance shopping experience. Sounds like basic research though, so not a competitive advantage yet.
Looking at internal organization is great, but again not a competitive advantage. Every org should be reviewing internal structures and efficiencies.
Your friend likes Walmart better than Amazon. I'm sure for valid reasons. But it's a third hand anecdote at this point without any details.
"Anything Amazon does Walmart does the same thing" seems disingenous. Their cost structures are different. The customers are dofferent. There be different strategies in pricing. Some will be copied, but Walmart can't copy Amazon's pricing models wholesale.
"Customer service is going to be...in 5 years"... Maybe. Maybe not. Why hasn't it happened yet? What has changed? Will this new directive overtake whatever cultural forces led customer service to be what it is now?
I'd be interested to see some analysis that goes deeper.
... as we raise our costs to service the dwindling market of "people without a computer and stable home address."
It is astonishing that Walmart HQ still thinks that the internet is a fad. No person with a viable alternative desires to visit a physical Walmart store. It takes time, requires overcoming a variety of frustrations like traffic, parking, bewildering store layouts, and then you never know if the item you want will actually be present at the location. Compare clicking a button and having the item delivered to your door.
> Walmart will never die
The truth is that Walmart is already dead. They are too far behind to ever catch up, and it is clear that "HQ" thinks that bolting an "e-commerce solution" on to their existing systems will keep them competitive, when in fact the entire organization has to be rebuilt from the ground up to even have a chance. That isn't going to happen. Walmart will soon be joining Sears and Blockbuster.
> No person with a viable alternative desires to visit a physical Walmart store. It takes time, requires overcoming a variety of frustrations like traffic, parking, bewildering store layouts, and then you never know if the item you want will actually be present at the location. Compare clicking a button and having the item delivered to your door.
You likely haven't been to too many Walmarts, especially in rural areas without a real Main Street / town square. People congregate there and eat at the food court or just hang out. Being able to get an item immediately instead of waiting two days is convenient. Most people don't buy a specialty item, they buy conventional merchandise that is more or less guaranteed to be in stock. Many communities have Walmart as their exclusive grocery store.
The complaint about traffic and parking (Walmarts have ample parking in all but the more urban locations!) shows that your perspective is that of a large city with ample public transit, not the more representative American locale. There's no Walmart in Manhattan, but there are two just over the bridge in Jersey. Most Americans live in a semi-urban, suburban, or rural place.
No one thinks the internet is a fad at HQ and you have no basis for that. We just bought a 3 billion dollar online retailer and put their CEO in charge of Walmart.com and online strategy is a part of every weekly buyer meeting in the company.
No time in the near future will people not shop in person, the online market is under 10% and people like to shop in person.
Product prices will not rise with internal labor costs; our product flow is currently not optimized which adds a lot of labor that you do not see. As that changes those labor will shoft to the store floor and create a better customer experience. Combine that with procate brands (higher margin) and your overall margin will continue to drop.
If you think someone is far behind in any online business you are underestimating how quickly those things can turn around in a massive company with tens of thousands of people working on the problem.
> you are underestimating how quickly those things can turn around in a massive company with tens of thousands of people working on the problem
I know exactly how an aging, entrenched bureaucracy rewarded for in store sales will react to a new online bolt-on that will "steal" their sales. Ongoing sabotage that cripples the upstart. Very few companies can make transitions like this where a new part of the company must cannibalize the old. Walmart has shown no evidence of even recognizing the kind of transformation they need to make.
>The survey, now in its fifth year, polled more than 5,000 consumers who make at least two online purchases in a three-month period. According to results, shoppers now make 51% of their purchases online, compared to 48% in 2015 and 47% in 2014.
1. They're only polling people who make online purchases.
These innovations are not widely publicized. Perhaps it would be beneficial to all if people could learn about new innovation at Walmart as easily as they can about Amazons. I wonder why the two are different in that department?
Amazon, by virtue of their newer business model and high growth, is a naturally good candidate for a news story. Most journalists are going to report about things that readers are interested in. Readers are interested in hearing established narratives that connect dots together and confirm their world view.
