Dont Discount Walmart.com (OPINION)

If you think brick-and-mortar sales are still the primary focus for companies that supply products to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., think again.

Local suppliers know they’re on the verge of an upheaval. Many of the 1,300-plus companies with offices in Northwest Arkansas have made Walmart.com growth their top initiative; for others, it’s near the top, they tell me.

Walmart wants the website to complement, not replace, its physical stores. A typical store offers 100,000 items for sale. Walmart.com offers 7 million, an expanded assortment of in-store items, plus a few million more. The minimum price for items used to be $9, but that dropped to $4, and in some cases $2.

This creates great possibilities for the local supplier, who spent the past few decades persuading a buyer at the home office to buy his stuff. Now, vendors can put so much more online.

But there’s a huge learning curve, and it is labor intensive. Products are uploaded to the website one by one, along with detailed descriptions and photos (“Rich content, please!” Walmart says. “Customers want to see ingredients, nutrition facts and enhanced content.”) There is an endless response to customer questions and comments (“Reply within 24 hours,” Walmart asks), not to mention day-to-day order management and in-stock issues — and the holy grail of e-commerce: reviews and ratings. 

Walmart is now strongly encouraging suppliers to have at least one dedicated dot-com person to manage online sales, but the transition is clunky. There isn’t a lot of outside e-commerce talent in Northwest Arkansas, so companies are generally developing people from within to move into those roles.

The largest teams, especially ones selling hot online items — think Kimberly-Clark Corp., Procter & Gamble, SC Johnson — already have e-commerce staffs. Smaller teams often use a staff person who already works a separate role to ease into Walmart.com sales.

Jim Mikula, executive recruiter with Cameron Smith & Associates of Rogers, agreed that recruiters are noticing a demand for dot-com positions, but said most companies still use one person for e-commerce duties, part-time.

“They’re easing their way in. It’s like the chicken and egg; do you add resources before or after?” Mikula said.

From its west coast facilities, Walmart appears to be impressing even the larger tech world by amassing resources and innovations. Walmart Global e-commerce added 1,000 employees last year, beefing up WalmartLabs, its tech arm. Out of Labs come social media and mobile tools — WMX, the media company to help suppliers promote their products online, Savings Catcher (Harps is advertising those apples you bought for less, so Walmart gives you the difference on a gift card) and Search My Store (you’re in the store and can’t find the pickles; use your phone to search the aisles).

The SparkReviewer program allows suppliers to ship product samples to hand-selected reviewers, for a jump-start on ratings and reviews for new products. (“We want your exclusives, special buys, close-outs, and bundling opportunities. We want new products before they hit the shelves,” suppliers say Walmart is telling them).

Still, bridging the distance between Northwest Arkansas and San Bruno, Calif., can seem daunting to local suppliers, who hope they have enough resources, talent and information to transform their business practices. They receive some instruction in online processes from Walmart.com, but rely more upon peer networks. The supplier education company 8th & Walton offers a three-hour course twice a month called “Selling to Walmart.com and Samsclub.com.”

Suppliers mentioned to me they’re eager for the retailer to add subscription services (akin to those on Amazon.com, where vendors schedule ongoing delivery of everyday items for a price break), to begin accepting coupons online, and to perfect grocery pick-up services, now in the testing phase. If there is to be a tipping point, perhaps it is then, and acclimated suppliers will have the advantage.

As for us customers, we don’t have to feel ashamed using our cell phones in the store any more. I asked, and it’s encouraged. Sixty-five percent of Walmart customers use smartphones. Go ahead; check prices and read reviews brazenly. It’s the new strategy. 

Robin Mero is content director for Bentonville-based Selling to the Masses, which serves as a destination for resources to help early-stage, consumer-product companies get and stay on the shelves of the country’s top retailers. She can be reached at [email protected].