Walmart highlights traditional retail strategy as it takes on Amazon

FAYETTEVILLE, ARK. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon is touting the company’s traditional retailing roots as a competitive advantage as it seeks to take sales away from online giant Amazon at a time of industry upheaval.

Speaking Friday at the annual shareholders’ meeting, McMillon highlighted a range of approaches Walmart has introduced or tested in the past year, like grocery pickup and technology that tracks food through the global supply chain. The company has also made serious investments in its online operations, buying up several smaller retail sites.

McMillon and other executives also highlighted the company’s investments in higher wages and training for its employees.

“We will compete with technology, but win with people,” McMillon told a cheering audience. “We will be people-led and techempowered.”

The gathering — part pep rally, part music concert, and only briefly a business meeting — comes as Walmart’s moves to meld its online services with its battalion of 4,700 stores are gaining momentum.

Walmart’s online sales surged as it tinkered with its shipping offers and other services, and drew more shoppers to its stores as well in its fiscal first quarter. The world’s largest retailer has posted sales gains at established stores for the eleventh straight quarter, and customer traffic has risen for the tenth quarter in a row.

The mood at the meeting was upbeat, despite the struggles of the retail industry. About 14,000 people packed the arena including workers from around the world as well as shareholders, analysts and several members of the founding Walton family. Gwen Stefani, Mary J. Blige, NE-Yo and The Band Perry performed while Blake Shelton, Stefani’s co-star from The Voice, served as host.

McMillon highlighted the company’s efforts to offer more shopping options, including automated pickup stations in some store parking lots, in-store pickup for online orders, and “Jet Fresh” delivery, which provides grocery delivery in one to two days and is available to about half of U.S. households. That service is a result of the company’s acquisition last year of online retailer Jet.com.

“The historic trade-off between price and service doesn’t really exist anymore,” McMillon said.

With faster shipping a key area of competition, Walmart announced on Thursday a delivery service using its own store employees, who will deliver packages ordered online while driving home from their regular work shifts. The “associate delivery” program would use Walmart’s U.S. stores and roughly 1.2 million employees to speed de-

We will compete with technology, but win with people. We will be people-led and tech-empowered.

livery and cut costs, the firm said.

Still, there were some signs of dissatisfaction.

Two employees, speaking on shareholder proposals, called for Walmart to provide more hours for part-time workers and greater parental leave. Both comments prompted loud cheers from the employees.

Janie Grice, a three- year Walmart employee from Marion, S.C., thanked the company for its wage increases, which has boosted her pay from $7.25 to $10 an hour.

But “too many of us are still parttime,” she said.

Blake Jackson, a Walmart spokesman, said the company’s leave policies for hourly workers are significantly better than most of the industry.

Walmart has invested $2.7 billion in higher wages and training for workers to lower turnover and make the shopping experience more appealing.