An app feature that allows users to add items to a shopping list via voice or barcode scan, and then directs shoppers to the correct aisles around stores to make the shopping experience easier and faster.
A real-time online price monitor, which automatically updates Wal-Mart’s prices based on its competition’s pricing. This ensures Wal-Mart’s merchandise is priced at the best possible levels to convert sales, of which price is usually a large determining factor when shopping online.
Here’s the rub
Despite all of these fantastic efforts in digital commerce technology, Wal-Mart still faces one huge roadblock. When consumers begin their online shopping the first – and often last – place they look is Amazon.com. Wal-Mart needs to figure out a way to break that habit.
A big-box retailer that’s been able to do surprising well in the online space is Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLS). Staples is the only brick-and-mortar company whose online sales exceeded Wal-Mart’s. Its focus on business-to-business office supply sales is unlikely to be emulated by Wal-Mart, but perhaps Wal-Mart can copy some other strategies the company uses to improve online sales.
Staples’ strategy boils down to speed and convenience. Speed is very important in the office supply business, because most offices don’t plan their supply purchases. When supplies run low, they determine it’s time to buy more. The convenience of Staples delivery is a great boon for time-strapped businesspersons, who don’t want to carry heavy reams of paper to and from their cars.
But speed and convenience are important to online shoppers no matter what they’re buying. We want it, and we want it now, no matter what it is. And the less we have to do, the better.
Wal-Mart’s thousands of locations can provide impeccably fast shipping times. Just as Staples uses its locations to determine shipping logistics, Wal-Mart does the same. But with so many more locations than its competitors, Wal-Mart can realistically provide same-day shipping for relatively cheap.
In fact, Wal-Mart is reportedly considering a plan to pay in-store shoppers to deliver orders to their neighbors. Alternatively, the company could partner with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), which recently launched a service called Shopping Express that provides same-day shipping for online store orders. A partnership with Google could also provide Wal-Mart with a better web presence, helping to break the Amazon habit.
Wal-Mart’s advantage
Lucky for Wal-Mart, it can use its huge in-store sales to subsidize online experiments. Any mistakes or setbacks with its digital strategy aren’t likely to drastically hurt its bottom line. That said, it will have to figure out a way to capture a large portion of online shoppers’ mind share before long. It just doesn’t need to rush things. The progress Wal-Mart Labs has made with technological innovations is great; it needs to do a better job of marketing its online shopping benefits to customers.
