Retailer unveils website changes

Badges’ return also announced

Meetings during Wal-Mart shareholders week opened Wednesday with topics that included how the company plans to spend $1.5 billion in new e-commerce upgrades and changes in employee badges.

About 5,000 Wal-Mart employees are in Northwest Arkansas, many of them staying in dorms at the University of Arkansas. They are joined by another 20,000 shareholders who have taken over hotels and motels throughout the area.

Wal-Mart is paying the University of Arkansas about $1.2 million for the use of its facilities throughout shareholders week. Most of the expenses are for providing Wal-Mart workers with food and places to stay.

Steve Voorhies, manager of media relations at the University of Arkansas, said the university has allocated 5,095 bed spaces in anticipation of housing 5,051 domestic and international Wal-Mart employees, some of whom began arriving last weekend. Each bed reserved by Wal-Mart for its employees will cost $28 per night, according to a contract between the parties.

Wal-Mart will pay the university $450,000 in housing costs, while meals provided throughout shareholders week are about $500,000. Wal-Mart also has agreed to pay $130,000

for University of Arkansas Police Department costs and another $78,000 for parking and transit expenses throughout the week, according to Voorhies.

There is no rental fee for use of the university’s athletic department facilities like Bud Walton Arena and Barnhill Arena, where Wal-Mart held its U.S. and International Associates’ meetings Wednesday.

Here’s a look at Wednesday’s shareholders week highlights.

E-COMMERCE

During an innovation presentation at the Sam’s Club home office, company executives showed off a more customer-responsive website for Walmart.com and the implementation of interactive maps to locate items in Wal-Mart stores.

“Innovation has been at the core of Wal-Mart,” said Jamie Iannone, the president and chief executive officer of

Samsclub.com. “What’s exciting for me is the pace and level of innovation we have going on today.”

Wal-Mart’s e-commerce team introduced a responsive website for Wal-Mart grocery customers about a year ago. The site delivered the same content to customers using home computers, tablets or smartphones.

Ola Oladunni, head of user experience for grocery home shopping, said website traffic has doubled because of the new site. Wal-Mart is taking that experience and applying it to WalMart.com.

Global e-commerce representatives also demonstrated plans to add interactive maps to stores, expanding on the “Search my Store” program that began in October.

The program has given Wal-Mart customers the ability to search specific stores to see whether items are available. Justin Toupin, who leads the product team responsible for mobile apps, said a map is being added to help locate items, and he demonstrated it Wednesday.

The interactive map was introduced last month and is available in 10 stores, including Bentonville.

“It gives the customers a better navigation tool to actually find where the items are located in the store,” Toupin said.

DEGREE OPTIONS

Kristin Oliver, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president for human resources, said during a panel discussion that the company has offered programs through American Public University to aid workers seeking degrees and that those will continue. But WalMart also is keeping its workforce in perspective through its current initiatives, pointing out the fact the company will hire workers who don’t have high school diplomas.

“As we get through the path, we’ll be focused more on the higher-education piece of it,” Oliver said. “But right now we have the gap at the beginning. So that’s what we’ve focused more on.”

Matt Sigelman, the chief executive officer of Burning

Glass Technology, said during the panel discussion that twothirds of Americans don’t have college degrees.

BADGE CHANGES

A name badge designed by founder Sam Walton bearing the slogan “Our people make the difference” is being reintroduced to the WalMart workforce this year. The change was announced during a meeting for U.S. employees Wednesday.

Employees in town for the shareholders meeting will receive the badge. It will be rolled out to the full workforce by the end of the year.

“What you do matters,” said Wal-Mart U.S. Chief Operating Officer Judith McKenna. “As Sam Walton said in the video, our people make the difference. You’re our edge. You’re the key to our success.”

The slogan was on the final name badge worn by Walton, who remained active until his death in 1992.