126013127 - ddấcd
speaking level 1 (Trường Đại Học Duy Tân)
messages.pdf_cover_qr_code_label
messages.studocu_not_sponsored_or_endorsed_by_college
126013127 - ddấcd
speaking level 1 (Trường Đại Học Duy Tân)
messages.pdf_cover_qr_code_label
messages.studocu_not_sponsored_or_endorsed_by_college
messages.downloaded_by
lOMoARcPSD|69086902
A Study of Digital Transformation Success: The Wal-
Mart Case
Yuxiang Gou
Sunwah International Business School, Liaoning University, Shen Yang, 110000, China
20226602112@smail.lnu.edu.cn
Abstract.
This case study examines the successful digital transformation of Wal-
Mart. As a leading global retailer, Wal-Mart has maintained its leading position
among the Fortune 500 by leveraging technologies such as big data and cloud
computing to meet the challenges of the digital era. This paper analyzes the
background, motivation, path and model of Wal-Mart's digital transformation, as
well as the significance and impact of this transformation on Wal-Mart itself and
the retail industry as a whole. The study found that Wal-Mart has successfully
maintained its leading position in the ever-changing business environment by
responding to changes in market demand, fierce competition with competitors
such as Amazon, and using big data and emerging technologies to improve
efficiency and the customer experience. Wal-Mart's digital transformation has
not only improved its own operational efficiency and customer experience, but
also promoted the transformation of the entire retail industry to a new retail
model. At the same time, the application of blockchain technology has improved
the transparency and efficiency of food safety and enhanced consumer
confidence in food safety. This study provides valuable references and insights
for traditional retail giants on how to find new ways to survive and develop in the
digital wave.
Keywords:
Digital Transformation, Big Data, Walmart, Retail Industry.
1
Introduction
In the context of the era of digitalisation, more and more online platforms have
appeared, relying on the rapid development of big data, cloud platforms and other
related technologies, it has become increasingly important for retailers to take
advantage of the opportunities of digitalisation to develop themselves. Wal-Mart Stores
Inc., founded by Sam Walton in Arkansas, USA in 1962, has grown to become the
world's leading retailer. It is known for its "Everyday Low Prices" strategy and product
diversity. Walmart's success has been driven by its competition with Amazon. As an
established offline retailer, it has managed to maintain its position in the top 10 of the
Fortune 500 in the context of the digital era. This case study will delve into the
background, motivation, path and mode of Walmart's digital transformation, as well as
the significance and impact this transformation has had on Walmart itself and the retail
industry as a whole. By analysing how Walmart has responded to changes in market
© The Author(s) 2025
M. M. Husin (ed.), Proceedings of the 2025 International Conference on Financial Risk and Investment
Management (ICFRIM 2025), Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research 333,
https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-748-9_81
messages.downloaded_by
lOMoARcPSD|69086902
has leveraged big data and emerging technologies to improve efficiency and customer
experience, it will reveal how the retail giant has stayed ahead of the game in the ever-
changing business environment.
2
Wal-Mart Corporate Background
Walmart Inc. was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 in Arkansas, USA. After more than
60 years of growth, Walmart has become the world's leading retailer with more than
10,500 shops and e-commerce sites in 19 countries and employs approximately 2.1
million people worldwide. Walmart significantly benefits consumers with its Every
Day Low Prices strategy and product diversity, with prices typically 10-25% lower than
competitors [1]. In addition, Walmart's presence as a major retailer for low-income
households in non-metropolitan areas, including those on food assistance programmes,
often helps to alleviate food insecurity, especially among low-income families with
children [1].
Walmart as the world's largest retailer, the world's top 500 company’s first operating
income enterprises, Walmart always maintains a low price strategy, making full use of
the optimised supply chain management and economies of scale effect to achieve the
purpose of thin profits and high sales. Walmart has more than 10,500 shops worldwide
in 2022, and as of 2023, Walmart has a total of 11,003 shops globally, of which 10,623
are brick-and-mortar retail shops offline, and nearly half of these markets are concen-
trated in the US market [2].
Wal-Mart's international expansion began with the opening of its first Sam's Club
shop in Mexico City in 1991, followed by the acquisition of 122 Woolco shops in Can-
ada in 1994, marking its first major international acquisition. As of January 2021,
Walmart operated 6,101 retail units outside the United States, including 3,189 in Mex-
ico and Central America, 1,496 in Canada, 424 in China, 373 in Chile, 293 in the United
Kingdom, and 90 in India. Walmart's international operations generated $120.8 billion
in revenue in fiscal year 2021, accounting for 22 per cent of Walmart Inc's total sales.
Walmart is the largest private employer in Mexico and Central America, with more
than 200,000 employees [3].
But nowadays, affected by the new crown epidemic, consumers are more inclined to
buy online rather than offline purchase of goods, as the world's largest retailer,
Walmart, the ranking of some fluctuations, Walmart's facing many challenges [4].
Walmart as a leader in the retail industry, leading companies, and then with Amazon in
the process of competition for the industry to bring the experience of digital transfor-
mation.
A Study of Digital Transformation Success: The Wal-Mart Case
735
messages.downloaded_by
lOMoARcPSD|69086902
3
Background and Motivation For Walmart's Digital
Transformation
3.1
Changes in Market Demand
Walmart's main market is the US market, but the market structure of the US market is
undergoing significant changes according to the Pew Research Centre's 2020 study,
nowadays the group with spending power in the United States is the millennials who
account for the largest share of the population [5]. They were born at the end of the last
century, and unlike baby boomers, they have been exposed to more technological
changes, they are able to quickly accept and adapt to new technologies and services,
and they have experienced the development of the Internet and are skilled in its use,
which has led to their preference for a wide range of products and services online [6].
At the same time, more than one-third of Millennials have their own financial plan [7].
They prefer to buy goods through multiple channels and online platforms are a great
way to shop. This has forced Walmart to go digital.
3.2
Wal-Mart's High-Level Strategic Planning
During Walmart's CEO Mike Duke's tenure in 2009, significant investments and
changes were made in the company's digital transformation and infrastructure. The
Walmart U.S. segment was mentioned in the 2009 10-K annual report, which included
Walmart's U.S. online retail operation walmart.com, as well as samsclub.com, which
would later become Walmart's premium membership shop, suggesting that in 2009
Mike Duke had already begun laying the groundwork for the company's digital trans-
formation. In 2009, Mike Duke had begun laying the groundwork for the company's
digital transformation. The report also looks at Walmart's investment in information
technology, its focus on customer relationships and data management, and emphasises
the importance of information technology in the risk factors section of the report. Alt-
hough there are no direct plans for digitisation, all the information shows that Wal-Mart
had already started to lay the foundation for digital transformation in 2009 in terms of
e-commerce, supply chain management, and IT investments.
3.3
Strong Competitors in the Retail Market
Despite being the largest retailer offline, Walmart needs to compete with Amazon's
online platform in the context of digital transformation. The competition between them
is also one of the most watched showdowns in the retail industry. But Amazon has a
huge advantage in the e-commerce space. Amazon established its own website as early
as 1995, and has been operating its online platform much earlier as compared to
Walmart. Amazon's technology is more mature, and consumer spending is more in-
clined to online consumption, the competition between Amazon and Walmart is very
fierce.
Profitero's research shows that about 70 per cent of both companies also have the
same prices on the same products. No other retailer can match that. But Target and
736
Y. Gou
messages.downloaded_by
lOMoARcPSD|69086902
Amazon match prices only 26 percent of the time. Amazon maintains a considerable
price advantage in video games and fashion, where its average price is 9% and 7%
lower than its closest competitors, Best Buy and Walmart, respectively [8].
4
Paths and Models for Digital Transformation
4.1
Walmart Digital Transformation Timeline
In 1996, made his first foray into e-commerce by opening an online shop for Wal-Mart
and its membership retail warehouse division, Sam's Club.
Launched Walmart.com in 2000 after building web engineers jumped ship and early
e-commerce efforts suffered, and reached $1bn in sales five years later, the same year
it was the eighth most popular site in the world, with Amazon sixth
In 2008, Amazon made $19.17 billion in revenue that year, while Walmart only had
$1.73 billion at the time, far less than Amazon in 13th place.
In 2010, Walmart set up a global e-commerce division to change the status quo and
established Walmart Labs, which invested significant resources in creating solutions
such as next-generation search engines and mobile apps that personalise the experience.
to solve problems such as poor search engine accuracy.
In 2014, Walmart's mobile app users surged from 4 million to 14 million, with the
launch of Savings Catcher, a feature that scans a customer's receipt and compares it to
Walmart's price, giving the customer a gift card to make up the difference if a compet-
itor's price is lower, and Walmart Pay, which allows customers to pay for in-store pur-
chases with their smartphones. Walmart Pay, which allows customers to use their
smartphones to pay for in-store purchases.
In 2018, Walmart launched the Connected Content Provider Program, designed to
help suppliers extend their content to the Walmart catalogue and other retailers. In the
same year, Walmart partnered with IBM to use blockchain technology to track food
products as they move through its supply chain to ensure their quality and authenticity.
Additionally, Walmart announced a five-year strategic partnership with Microsoft to
leverage Microsoft's cloud services, IoT, machine learning, and artificial intelligence
solutions to drive digital transformation [6].
In 2019, the Walmart app became the No. 1 shopping app in the U.S. for Black
Friday, and the Walmart Home app went live nationwide, offering online ordering for
merchandise and one-hour speedy delivery, in-store pickup and citywide delivery.
With 4,700 shops and 31 dedicated e-commerce distribution centres in 2022,
Walmart's vast network makes fast shipping and delivery possible, but the company is
not stopping there. They have begun construction on four next-generation fulfilment
centres equipped with robotics and machine learning capabilities, which will allow the
retailer to offer next-day and next-day delivery to 95% of Americans, and same-day
delivery to 80% of them. Walmart has completed more than 6,000 deliveries via drones,
while Amazon has completed just 100 drone deliveries in May 2023.
A Study of Digital Transformation Success: The Wal-Mart Case
737
messages.downloaded_by
lOMoARcPSD|69086902
4.2
Use of Digital Platforms
Use of the IBM Blockchain.
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) is a glob-
ally renowned technology company. IBM's service divisions include GBS and GTS,
with the former covering a wide range of areas such as business strategy, transfor-
mation, and business data analytics, and the latter mainly providing technical services
such as hardware, network, security, and cabling, etc. IBM's service capabilities range
from business strategy to IT strategy, to providing end-to-end solutions for business
operations, systems, and maintenance, reflecting its characteristics as a "service-ori-
ented enterprise". IBM's service capability ranges from business strategy to IT strategy,
to business operations, systems, maintenance and other end-to-end solutions, reflecting
its "service-oriented enterprise" characteristics. IBM's software products include Infor-
mation Management, Lotus, Rational, Tivoli, WebSphere five families, the food supply
chain is usually composed of three parts of this respectively for agricultural production,
industrial processing, wholesale or retail distribution [9]. Walmart has collaborated
with IBM to develop a food safety and traceability system based on blockchain tech-
nology. In August 2017, Walmart announced a blockchain partnership with large com-
panies in the supply chain industry such as Dole, Kroger, McCormick, Nestle, Tyson
Foods, and Unilever to find new applications to improve food traceability [10].Walmart
has been able to promote and develop this model of supply chain by Walmart has opti-
mised supply chain processes such as transportation to improve efficiency and reduce
the cost of goods. Thus, Walmart can achieve the strategy of "Every Day Low Prices"
to compete with Amazon.
Cloud Technology for Digital Transformation.
In 2018 Walmart entered into a five-
year strategic partnership with Microsoft, which Walmart chose as a cloud services
provider including Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 to accelerate Walmart's digital
transformation globally. Walmart uses a large number of Microsoft services for critical
workloads and the partnership with Microsoft enables Walmart to utilise machine learn-
ing, artificial intelligence and data platform solutions to deliver a wide range of cus-
tomer-facing external services and internal business applications [5]. With the help of
Microsoft, Walmart Inc. can better collaborate internally, while Jet.com, acquired in
2016, uses a wide range of cloud services to serve its customers. The Jet.com platform
consists of open-source software, Visual F#, and Azure Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS),
such as Azure Cosmos DB.Jet.com's next-generation architecture Jet.com's next-gen-
eration architecture is built for speed. It uses Panther, Azure's next-generation inventory
processing system, to make its services faster, smarter, and more efficient [6]. With
these cloud platform services, it is possible to greatly improve collaboration and com-
munication among employees, which in turn improves the efficiency of work.
738
Y. Gou
messages.downloaded_by
lOMoARcPSD|69086902
5
Significance and Impact
5.1
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation through the introduction of advanced technology and manage-
ment methods to improve Walmart's operational efficiency and reduce costs, for the
retail industry to bring greater competitive advantage, while optimising the customer's
shopping experience, in China because of cooperation with Tencent, the launch of the
Walmart small program, so that the shopping process has been simplified, the user only
need to scan the bar code of the goods with the small program, and then finally the
payment can be directly out of the supermarket, the Directly eliminating the time for
customers to queue. At the same time, because it is a small programme, no need to
download the app, can be a good solution to the problem of queuing in shops. This trial
operation can be a clear direction for his next improvement, while at the same time can
bring consumers a pleasant shopping experience.
5.2
Promotes the Retail Model
In the 30-year-long competition between Amazon and Walmart, as the leaders in the
retail industry, the competition between them has facilitated the spread of new technol-
ogies. It also shows the direction in which the retail industry should develop in the
digital era, and provides a success story for other manufacturers, which means that it
greatly reduces the waste of social resources, and is able to reduce the waste of re-
sources in developing new technologies. The retail industry is beginning to shift to a
new retail model that integrates online and offline. Walmart is actively exploring the
new retail model to provide consumers with a convenient and diversified shopping ex-
perience, thus enhancing market competitiveness.
5.3
Increased Food Safety
In the process of IBM's cooperation, the transparency and efficiency of the food supply
chain has been greatly improved, consumers can reduce concerns about food safety,
while reducing the cost and time of food inspections, providing a guarantee of the cred-
ibility of the industry. With Walmart's promotion of this technology, it will provide a
way to regulate food safety.
6
Conclusion
In the digital era, Walmart's transformation is not only a profound innovation of its own
business model, but also an important exploration of the future development path of the
entire retail industry. By actively embracing digital technology, Walmart has not only
improved its own operational efficiency and customer experience, but also promoted
the transformation of the entire industry into a new retail model. Walmart's digital trans-
formation experience shows that traditional retailers can maintain their leading position
A Study of Digital Transformation Success: The Wal-Mart Case
739
messages.downloaded_by
lOMoARcPSD|69086902
in the fierce market competition through technological innovation and strategic adjust-
ment in the face of competition from emerging e-commerce platforms.
Walmart's digital transformation has far-reaching implications for the improvement
of food safety, the development of the retail model and the impact on the industry's
competitive landscape. It not only provides consumers with a more convenient and per-
sonalised shopping experience, but also improves the transparency and efficiency of
the food supply chain through the application of blockchain technology, and enhances
consumer confidence in food safety. At the same time, the competition between
Walmart and Amazon has facilitated the spread and application of new technologies,
promoting the digitalisation of the retail industry.
All in all, Walmart's digital transformation is a success story that demonstrates how
traditional retail giants can find new ways of survival and development in the digital
wave. With the constant advancement of technology and changing consumer demands,
Walmart's road to digital transformation will continue, and its experience will provide
valuable reference and inspiration for other enterprises.
References
1.
Caminade, J., Lehmann, J.: Understanding Walmart's impact on the US economy and com-
munities. Analysis Group (2024)
2.
Wells, T.: Examining the secrets of Walmart's cost leadership dominance. Retrieved April
21, 2024, from https://www.marketingscoop.com/consumer/walmart-cost-leadership-strat-
egy/, last accessed 2024/12/31
3.
Wells, T.: Walmart's evolving international strategy: a retail expert's perspective. Marketing
Scoop. Retrieved April 21, 2024, https://www.marketingscoop.com/consumer/walmart-in-
ternational-strategy/, last accessed 2024/12/31
4.
Ren, X.L.: Business analysis of Wal-mart - success factors and challenges.
BCP Business
and Management
44
, 327-333 (2023)
5.
Walmart
2018,
https://www.corporatereport.com/walmart/2018/ar/,
last
accessed
2024/12/31
6.
Pratap, A.: Digital Transformation at Walmart: A case study. (2020)
7.
Cautero, R. M.: How Millennial Spending Habits Compare to Other Generations.
The Bal-
ance Money
(2021)
8.
Pomroy, K.: Amazon vs Walmart: Who has the cheapest prices? (2024)
9.
Aitken, R.: IBM forges blockchain collaboration with nestlé & walmart in global food
safety. Forbes (August 22) URL (2017). https://www. forbes. com/sites/rogerait-
ken/2017/08/22/ibm-forges-blockchain-collaboration-with-nestle-walmart-for-global-food-
safety, last accessed 2024/12/31
10.
Sristy, A.: Blockchain in the food supply chain - what does the future look like? (2023)
Walmart.
Dostupno
na:
https://tech.
walmart.
com/content/walmart-global-
tech/en_us/news/articles/blockchain-in-the-food-supply-chain.
html,
last
accessed
2024/12/31
740
Y. Gou
messages.downloaded_by
lOMoARcPSD|69086902
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0 International License (
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
),
which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any
medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the
source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's
Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material
is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not
permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain
permission directly from the copyright holder.
A Study of Digital Transformation Success: The Wal-Mart Case
741
messages.downloaded_by
lOMoARcPSD|69086902
