Walmart Moves From Traditional Retailer To High-Tech Innovator

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

How does any company compete with Amazon? For most businesses, the matchup would be a David versus Goliath story. A small business or local retailer must learn how to differentiate itself from its big box or online competitors to succeed. But, what happens when one big retailer competes head-to-head against another big retailer? That’s a world-champion heavyweight fight. That’s Amazon versus Walmart.

Before going any further, I should say that I admire both of these retailers. They have earned their places in the retail hall of fame. What’s fascinating is that they have done so with completely different business models.

Amazon is an online retailer known for a huge selection of merchandise and very competitive prices. A big part of its success is convenience. Go online, make your purchase, and it eventually shows up at your door.

Walmart, on the other hand, is a traditional brick-and-mortar store known for selection and competitive prices. Its success comes from a different type of convenience. There are lots of stores. Ninety percent of Americans live within a 15-minute drive to a Walmart. But, that alone isn’t enough to compete against the online retailer, so Walmart created its own version of online – and more. It has proved that a traditional retailer can break the mold and become innovative. Yes, Walmart is an innovator. It has turned to technology to stay competitive with Amazon.

Brennan Wilkie, the SVP of Customer Experience Strategy at InMoment, a customer experience intelligence company devoted to understanding customer feedback, has a few insights into what’s going on in Bentonville, Arkansas (Walmart HQ). Wilkie says, “Once viewed as a customer experience laggard, Walmart has turned to innovative tech to stay relevant, even leapfrogging some of the big e-tailers with a bold vision.”

Walmart has expanded from a traditional brick-and-mortar store to include online voice shopping, free two-day shipping, frictionless checkout and more. Recently, Walmart filed a patent for facial recognition technology, and the technology goes beyond recognizing frequent shoppers. One of the ways Walmart could use facial recognition is to determine how customers feel about their shopping experience. Imagine being able to identify visibly frustrated customers while they are still in the store. An employee can go directly to the customer and resolve a problem before the customer has made a complaint, thereby pre-empting complaints, reducing the cost of resolution, and protecting the brand against negative sentiment and customer defection.

Sounds pretty exciting, however, Wilkie cautions that the experience will have to live up to the hype. But what if it could? What if a simple look of dissatisfaction or frustration meant that within moments, a staffer would be at your side to help? Is that realistic?

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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