Walmart is the largest retailer in the world and is one of the Fortune 500 companies. But the fierce struggle with new digital players - like Amazon - forces it to aggiornarse to the current times and attack other business segments.
In this sense, the supermarket chain has been acquiring companies from other industries, sealing agreements with strategic partners and betting on technology to innovate.
Thus, it fights to resist the advance of Amazon, the main e-commerce platform of the planet, which also deploys a strategy focused on the diversification of products and services.
One of the last moves of Walmart was the alliance with the Metro producer Goldwin Mayer to supply its Vudu streaming platform, acquired in 2010 and with a catalog of 180,000 movies and TV shows.
As detailed by the company, the programs are based on the MGM film and television catalog and can be viewed for free, financed with advertising.
The next step will be to offer products from your store during advertising runs so that users can buy through remote control. And get into the industry led by Netflix.
The plan does not end there. This year, it paid $ 2225 million to stay with Cornershop, a delivery platform for orders from supermarkets, pharmacies and other specialized stores.
Thus, it seeks to take advantage of the advance of online purchases: only the electronic sales of Walmart in the USA. they grew 44% during fiscal year 2018, up to US $ 11,500 million.
As if this were not enough, together with the automaker, Ford began a pilot plan to deliver purchases to customers using autonomous cars.
Although for the moment an emergency driver will be there, the goal to achieve by 2021 will be to develop a delivery service for everyday products with this type of vehicle.
But there is more. He is in talks to stay with the health insurer Humana. If the operation closes, Walmart could open clinics in stores, market insurance policies and expand existing pharmaceutical services.
Previously, the US giant had acquired the e-commerce site Jet.com, a startup just two years old that began in San Francisco. The operation marked a record in the history of electronic commerce: it paid $ 3.3 billion.
And, before that, he tried to enter the banking industry, but failed to do so because of regulatory issues. Anyway, it offers credit cards to its clients, which include promotions, discounts and benefits, apart from operating like any plastic.
Among his other purchases are the lingerie and luxury accessories firm Bare Necessities; the clothing brand of special sizes for ladies Eloquii and the shoes.com online shoe store. With these three operations, Walmart became a major player in the apparel industry.
An additional fact that illustrates this revolution faced by Walmart to adapt to the digital economy: it will open a Sam's Club Now store in Dallas without ATMs, which will allow users to buy without going through the typical manual payment process.
The reason for the expansion
"Walmart is getting into other industries because in the United States the progress of e-commerce is very noticeable," he said, "it does not make sense to have so many physical stores, with the expenses and the structure that implies", says Mariano Baca Storni, founder & CEO of Inclusion, an Argentine company with a global reach that helps innovate companies from all verticals.
To this we must add that "there are alternatives such as the delivery service of fresh food, Uber Eats, which also make sense of maintaining physical premises," explains Baca Storni, whose firm works with several retailers in Argentina to generate operational efficiency .
In this context, the supermarket chain is exploring different digital media to see what works for it. Because having made all the acquisitions mentioned does not mean that all will be successful.
Ignacio Perrone, Research Manager for Latin America of the consultancy Frost & Sullivan on issues related to digital transformation, points out that some of these actions seem to make more sense than others.
"Partnering with a content provider to insert advertising and drive sales is an interesting decision: In this economy, attention is scarce, so it makes sense to seal an agreement with who has that little good that, in this example, is linked with the attention of viewers, "he says.
For the analyst, leveraging a delivery service with autonomous cars is also reasonable, since it could have a lower delivery cost than a traditional service.
"Joining a health insurer, such as Humana, can be interesting, although I do not think it is essential to acquire it," he points out.
Matías Bras Harriott is co-founder of Brickless Group and TheCocobox.com, a cross-border e-commerce platform with Amazon support.
According to his analysis, "those isolated acquisitions, without any apparent connection to the root activity, tend towards a clear strategy of expansion and control over the competition".
"It's about getting ahead of others to potentially key areas, which later could mean a differential for other brands," says the entrepreneur iProUP, who was digital director Sarkany brand of the Fashion Commission of the Argentine Chamber of Electronic Commerce (CACE).
In summary, for Bras Harriott, much of these tactics are focused on industries that will inevitably end up generating a synergy with the original activities of the sector in which Walmart operates, both to optimize and increase the offer and to complement existing strategies or adding new ones. business channels.
The next step
Bras Harriott, Brickless Group, says: "The interest in the production of films and streaming platforms could bring great benefits in the future and I imagine that ventures into the video game development industry."
In this way, the next step will consist of "characters dressed for their brands and the possibility in the short term of a game-commerce of services and physical products".
This -the entrepreneur expands- should complement it with "deliveries in one hour, where the gamer can access tracking stations in the middle of the game, among other details".
"He has a lot of experience in this area working with global suppliers, so it is not unreasonable to think that he could provide logistics systems that make all the difference in the cost of the final product and it is a challenge for organizations around the world," he remarks. iProUP.
For this prediction, the executive stops to analyze the context. "Because of how jobs are evolving, everything tends to have less and less staff in supermarkets, that's how everything will converge to make retail become a deposit." That's where the internal logistics system has Walmart can be a great differential to go out and offer it to other companies, "he says.
Globally, Walmart is positioned as a success story at this point. According to Supply Chain Digest, the firm operates more than 11,700 stores and manages an average inventory of US $ 32 billion.
With this level of figures, it is imperative to have an effective and efficient strategy and supply chain management system.
In fact, the entire organization is committed to eliminating the costs of supply chains to allow consumers to save money.
As one of its milestones, in the 1980s, it began to work directly with manufacturers to reduce costs and manage the supply chain more efficiently.
Thus, the suppliers were responsible for managing their products in the Walmart stores, achieving close to 100% of the fulfillment of the orders.
In 1989, the company was named Retail of the Decade, with distribution costs estimated at just 1.7% of its cost of sales, much higher than competitors. Since then, its logistics and supply chain area of ââthe company has been refined.
"For example, it simplified the administration of the supply chain through the construction of communication networks and relations with suppliers to improve the flow of materials with lower inventories and superefficient replenishment," explains Baca Storni.
"Given that people are buying more and more through digital channels, many of the stores that Walmart now has become deposits," he concludes.
