Specialist
Former global officer and VP at Walmart Inc
Agenda
- E-commerce competitive landscape across big-box retailers
- Jet.com post-wind-down and overview of the last four years
- Fulfilment engineering and inventory forecasting across Walmart.com (NYSE: WMT) – online penetration by category
- Profitability concerns around shipping and last-mile delivery – Walmart’s omnichannel strategies
- Outlook for H2 2020 and post-coronavirus
Questions
1.
Can we start with an overview of the US online retail sector? What key trends and themes should the investment community monitor pertaining to the coronavirus pandemic?
2.
What share of Walmart’s total sales might be done online in 2020? What proportion were done online in 2019, and where might that proportion reach in five years?
3.
How did you evaluate Walmart’s recent decision to discontinue Jet.com? What could be the longer-term impacts of this wind-down?
4.
What are your high-level thoughts on Walmart Plus? What should investors monitor to gauge its success following its scheduled launch later in July?
5.
How do you think Walmart Plus will stack up against Amazon Prime in the longer term, as far as membership rates go?
6.
Do you think consumers that are already Amazon Prime members will subscribe to Walmart Plus as an additional service, or opt for one over the other?
7.
What might be the incremental impact on unit economics if Walmart increases its back end automation? You mentioned a near-term uptick in automation across the retail sector.
8.
To what extent could Walmart potentially drive down shipping costs over the next few years, within Walmart Plus and the company more broadly?
9.
Which of Walmart’s product categories – perhaps more in discretionary – might be most immune to moving online in large numbers?
10.
What are your thoughts on Walmart’s Shopify partnership? How would you characterise Walmart’s internal perception of third-party e-commerce?
11.
Why do you think click-and-collect has been particularly popular with Walmart’s customer base? What has allowed the company to execute on click-and-collect fairly well relative to an Amazon or just getting a mail delivery?
12.
We discussed Walmart’s 2016 acquisition of Jet.com. Could you foresee Walmart making another online e- commerce acquisition? If so, what factors might it consider?
13.
How does the technological prowess of Walmart’s distribution centres or fulfilment centres compare to those of Amazon? How might that dynamic evolve?
14.
How do you think Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillon and his management team have set expectations for its online business?
