Retail apocalypse? Walmart isn’t buying it.
At NRF 2018, the retailer strikes an optimistic tone
There may have been a “retail apocalypse” last year, but you wouldn’t know it by listening to Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon talk about the state of the industry. [1]
“Wasn’t it Mark Twain who said, ‘The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated?’” McMillon told National Retail Federation President and CEO Matthew Shay during a staged discussion at NRF 2018: Retail’s Big Show on Sunday.
Talk of retail’s imminent demise, he said, simply doesn’t reflect Walmart’s own healthy earnings. In November, the world’s largest retailer reported that same-store sales for its U.S. locations climbed for the 13th-consecutive quarter. [2] And just last week, the company announced it would raise entry-level wages for U.S. hourly employees to $11 an hour, offer a one-time cash bonus of up to $1,000, and expand maternity and parental leave benefits. [3]
That most recent announcement, McMillon said, was more than a reflection of what he sees as a positive business environment — it was also an important investment in the future.
“We want to foster a culture that supports change,” he said. “As we make investments in technology and learn how to put AI to work at Walmart or how to automate certain things, we want our people to go through that with us. To achieve that, we have to put them first and support them.”
Supporting employees, McMillon said, doesn’t just mean giving them higher wages and better benefits. It also means providing them opportunities to improve their skills, and technological tools — like mobile apps and new equipment — to make their jobs easier.
“People want these tools because the tasks we’re able to automate or digitize are tasks they don’t enjoy doing anyway, and we’re freeing them up to do things that are more fun,” he said.
Beating the competition and ensuring a bright future for retail, McMillon said, requires synchronized innovation across the entire business. That means improving brick and mortar stores, investing in e-commerce, and increasing transparency and efficiency in supply chains. And all of those strategies, he said, must ultimately make customers happier.
“The person who ultimately decides whether we’re here or not is the customer,” he said.
In the last couple years, the pursuit of customer satisfaction has steered Walmart toward some bold moves. In 2016, the company acquired Jet.com to boost its e-commerce growth. [4] Last year, it joined a major collaboration with IBM to explore how blockchain technology can be used to make the food supply chain safer. In the future, McMillon said, the company’s mission will remain the same, but change, by necessity, must remain a constant.
“What we’ve tried to do in recent times is to say, ‘The purpose is the purpose and the values are the values — everything else is open to debate and may change,” he said.
IBM is at NRF 2018: Retail’s Big Show through Tuesday, January 16. Visit us at Booth #1922 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City to find out how we’re transforming retail.
