Walmart 2014 Annual Report Download - page 6

customer-driven. I intend to lead Walmart with this same
customer-centric focus. Today, in addition to listening to
our customers, we apply data and technology to this task.
The millions of customer interactions that take place each
week give us some of the world’s most robust data to analyze
and leverage to improve our service. For example, customer
insights led the Walmart U.S. team to expand our Black Friday
1-Hour Guarantee program this past year, and innovative
systems enabled successful execution and on-time product
delivery. The tools today may be dierent than the ones Sam
employed, but the imperative that will guide our transforma-
tional initiatives is the same – to connect more eectively
with customers.
Walmart is well-positioned for the future partially due to our
unique assets. We have more than 10,900 physical points of
distribution globally. No other retailer possesses such an
extensive footprint. And, with our retail websites around the
world, we’re doing more to leverage these physical assets to
expand the intersection with digital retail. Last year, we grew
e-commerce sales in Brazil and China at nearly twice the
market rate. Asda’s Click and Collect program has been very
successful, and Mexico is expanding grocery delivery beyond
our Superama grocery stores to supercenters this year. We’re
leveraging best practices to further test grocery delivery
and customer pickup in the U.S. We’ve also broadened our
e-commerce merchandise assortment. Last year, for example,
we more than doubled walmart.com’s merchandise oerings
in the U.S. to over 5 million SKUs, and our sites in Brazil and
China greatly expanded their assortments as well.
We invest in price to bring everyday low prices (EDLP) to
more customers around the world. EDLP earns trust with
customers because we’re driven to keep our cost structure
low. That commitment to price is central to our brand –
regardless of the format.
We’re also giving customers greater access to the value we
oer through dierent formats. In the U.S., our Neighborhood
Markets oer fresh foods, pharmacy and fuel, and delivered
healthy comp sales growth in fiscal 2014. This year, we’ll
significantly accelerate their rollout to complement our
core supercenter fleet. And, in Mexico and the U.K., we’ll
open more small stores to deliver convenience, assortment
and low prices.
Expanding opportunities for associates. One of the
most exciting things about serving more customers in new
ways is the opportunity to create good jobs, attract new talent
and expand current associates’ possibilities to build careers.
Last year, we hired 776,000 new associates to jobs across
our operations. The path of my own career attests to the
exceptional opportunity at Walmart to advance professionally.
In fact, we promoted about 190,000 U.S. store and club
associates last year to jobs with more responsibility and
higher pay. And, we’ll continue to invest in training and
development because building the best team in retail is
central to our strategy.
Driving operational excellence. We remain focused on
driving the productivity loop to leverage operating expenses.
The most important way to deliver against this objective is to
increase sales. By operating and buying for less, we’re able to
lower prices that, in turn, prompt customers to make more
purchases. We also foster an environment that leverages best
practices across the enterprise to drive process improvements.
Operational excellence requires capital discipline and eciency,
and our real estate and construction teams have made great
progress in lowering the cost of new stores and remodels.
Our focus on capital eciency also is top of mind with our
e-commerce capabilities. We’re more disciplined now in
allocating capital to the right markets, the right formats
and the right digital capabilities.
Earning trust in communities. I’m proud of the value
we add in the communities we serve and I know we will nd
new ways to contribute. We are deeply committed to com-
pliance and social, environmental and local responsibility.
Operating with integrity is a cornerstone for building trust.
We have made tremendous progress toward our goal of
developing a world-class compliance organization and this
will continue to be a top priority going forward. Our training
and leadership development programs reinforce the mission
of upholding the highest standards of integrity, not just in
retail, but in all of business. We’ll also continue to lead on key
4 Walmart 2014 Annual Report
Read Walmart’s 2014 Global
Responsibility Report at
stock.walmart.com to learn
more about our workplace,
social, environmental,
sourcing and compliance
initiatives.