Walmart's story of reinvention has been unfolding over the past couple years, and recent financial results show that it's still a company to watch. In April, I mentioned that Walmart's CEO, Doug McMillon, had been revamping this established retailer in How To Become a Reinventor Like Walmart's CEO. He's been doubling down on Walmart's digital efforts among other key initiatives, and it looks like that choice is paying off, although he clearly has some ground to cover before Walmart shows that it's taking a serious run against Amazon, one of America's most popular digital darlings.
CEO McMillon's hard-fought reinvention shows progress, according to the latest first quarter results where Walmart is up 16% this year. Learn what McMillon shared yesterday in his video interview with CNN Money, Walmart Investors Are Smiling Once Again, where he talked about what his team's doing to focus on learning, listening to the customer, and being inventive.
Chris Kanaracus, our Managing Editor of Constellation Insights, captures a couple of our leading analysts' perspectives on how Walmart can compete against the likes of Amazon with last-mile fulfillment in this post, Walmart Partners with Uber, Lyft for Grocery Delivery in Strike Against Amazon as stated in The Wall Street Journal.
Time will tell on how Walmart fares in playing catch-up on last-mile fulfillment, considering that Amazon's already had a head start has been willing and able to take a hit on shipping costs, in order to stay ahead of its competition. Meanwhile, Amazon has been strategically taking aim at traditional brick and mortar clothing retailers to earn their market share by wooing clothing shoppers with online purchases. On that point, MarketWatch just came out with an article citing the obvious for many, Customers Hate Fitting Rooms and Clothing Retailers Are Paying the Price.
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Wal-Mart Profit, Revenue Beat Expectations; US. Sales Up More Than Expected. Yahoo Finance
Big Box Throwdown: Target Vs. Walmart. Forbes
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