What Walmart International’s CEO learned about consumers during the pandemic

Retail

What Walmart International’s CEO learned during COVID


What Walmart International’s CEO learned about consumers during the pandemic


Yeah. Tell us what you've learned from the last two years about your consumers and about interacting from consumers. Yeah. Thank you and hello everybody. It's good to see everybody on the coal today and what have we learned. Well, I think we learned in phases about customers because habits changed as we went through this two year cycle. Probably the thing that you referenced someone is like many businesses, we always said we were customer centric but doubling down on understanding customers, customers at the center of the decision making that we're doing has really been a great rallying call for the whole enterprise. When I think about customers now, I think about what they're shopping for and then how they're shopping as well and you know what they're shopping for. We're definitely seeing people wanting to gather celebrate unity. So events, celebrations around the world continuing to, to draw people to want to be together with other people and find ways to do that health well being safety is another one of those ones which is clearly coming to the fore and conscious consumerism and off to use the phrase. But I think you are seeing people being more thoughtful about what they buy. And if you think about the rise of people going vegetarian or at least making food options. And my family have made everybody do meatless Mondays. Doesn't always make me the most popular mother in the world, but actually it's a little bit of a step towards that. And I think you're seeing a lot of people, a lot of people doing that, refocusing on budgets and value. I think there's another trend that we're seeing and then finally I had a great friends the other day from somebody which is home as a hub. So this idea of a home being a hub for people and that's what started with people with like a nesting phase and then went through into do it yourself and then crafting and then things with families cooking at home, not eating out. So the customer is themselves and what they're buying their some of the trends. Yeah, gonna Oh no, I was, I just wanted to get you to follow up on one thing you said because you talked on the one hand about this trend towards this sort of more conscious consumerism and health and wellness and celebrations. And on the other hand, the budget sensitivity that comes out of these times, I think we've sometimes thought of those two things as being in tension or in conflict with each other. You seem to be suggesting they're all happening at the same time. I think, you know, it's a business for us. Um we, we save people money so they can live better and that is no matter what the occasion is or the mission for somebody is when they choose to when they choose to shop. So I think it's just that people are being more thoughtful and you know, spending more money on their homes maybe than other experiences that they've had. You know, people are traveling less. So how do, how do people think about that? I don't think the two things need to be in conflict and for all of us it's being conscious that each type of customer has a slightly different tension for them. So how do you find a path through for them that works for them? And then I was just going to add Alan on the other side of it, which is how people shop, which you know the title of this, which is people are becoming more digital than they ever were. And this is the one where I think you know, crises like wars, they put history on fast forward and I think you know that the rise of digital shopping that sort of choice for consumers, do you want it delivered to you, Do you want to shop in a store, Do you want to pick it up? You want to deliver it into your house, how it's delivered? You can have a choice of drone, electric van, you name it, it's all there. And that has really accelerated in the last couple of years. I think the, the other one that I put alongside that is how people shop from recommendations, be that social commerce or be that you know, putting store by what your friends tell you or what those rating reviews tell you is increasingly being the way that people are finding trust to try new things to dry new retailers as well. So there's a lot going on and just trying to keep the customer at the center of it is probably the biggest challenge that we all have.