Clark: Walmart focused on people and technology for future success

According to Cedric Clark, executive vice president of store operations for Walmart’s U.S. segment, people and technology are the secret sauce that will propel the retailer’s success in the future.

Clark has spent two decades at Walmart and Sam’s Club and a two-year stint at Petsmart, with most of his work in store operations. He recently presented at the WalStreet Breakfast event for suppliers in Bentonville, sharing an inside look at how the retail giant is preparing for continued success in the changing world of omnichannel.

Clark said his mission at Walmart is to make stores the best place to shop and the best place to work. Recent investments the company made in base salaries and bonus opportunities for its store leadership are also key to the company’s goals to drive more profits. Clark said rewarding store leadership with Walmart stock and bonus pay is a way to give management teams in stores the ability to take ownership, innovate and competitively strive to run more efficient stores while also providing engaging shopping experiences for customers.

DREAMS DASHED
Clark said he, like 75% of Walmart management, began as an hourly employee.

“I showed up in 2002 looking for a job when my dream to continue playing professional basketball post-college evaporated before my eyes in September 2001,” Clark said. “I had been playing in Europe and was about to join a league in Jordan.”

His contract start date was Sept. 28, 2001, but after the events of Sept. 11, Clark said his agent called him to say that there would be no deal to play in the Middle East. He spent a couple of months trying to get his head together after his pro-basketball dreams were dashed, and he didn’t know what he wanted to do. His dreams were to keep playing and eventually get into the NBA.

“I was between jobs and living at home when my mom put an Army brochure on my pillow,” he said.

She told him to get up and move toward work despite his crushed plans. Clark said he was raised by a strong tribe of women who insisted he do his best despite the circumstances. She mentioned there were retailers in the local area hiring. Clark showed up at a Walmart store, thinking maybe he could sell basketballs or goals. To his surprise, the manager gave him a job.

“I had my degree [bachelor’s degree in communications from Washington State University], but I started as an hourly associate selling sporting goods and lots of fishing licenses,” he said. “There was humility in that job and so much learning. Even if I could have started my career in another way, I wouldn’t have done it.”

Clark said he saw the business from the entry level wearing the brown vest, selling fishing licenses and being called to the front to cashier.  He said one early lesson he learned was there are separate fishing licenses for salt and fresh water, and he was guilty of selling the wrong licenses several times.

Clark said working on the store management pay structure earlier this year was a long time coming. He said corporate leadership, who also began as store employees, felt providing more financial incentives and ownership awards would unlock more dreams and give them the ability to climb career ladders. He said the stock-only compensation correlated for him the ownership and connection from sporting goods employees inside Walmart to Wall Street. Clark said when store employees see themselves as owners, they might see customers differently and could be interested in serving those needs and growing sales.

Clark said the restructuring of the pay structure for store management also gives them more autonomy about how they run their stores, meet their financial goals, and, most importantly, serve customers. He said store management can have bite-size businesses to run that are accretive to the company’s long-term success.

TECH SUPPORT
Clark’s team overseas 4,717 Walmart stores in the U.S., but he said each store must serve their customers’ needs. He said technology has been developed to help customers and troubleshoot other situations during the shift.

He said the Me@ mobile app used by store personnel is an operating system that runs AI applications to help workers make decisions. Employees can use it to troubleshoot the best task to do if the daily truck is running late or help a shopper select a popular and appropriate toy gift for a 6-year-old boy’s birthday party. He said store employees using Me@ allows for better productivity and also cuts down on managers having to hold meetings that redirect tasks when the normal flow of work is disputed.

Another technology that helps store employees keep taps on inventory is VizPick. The phone app uses augmented reality to check inventory levels in the back room and the store shelf. Clark said Vizpick allows employees to engage the app at the shelf level. When they hold up the phone and point to the inventory, if the color blue is seen on the app, then the employee knows they can take stock from the top shelf and move it down. If the color is white, then there is no action needed. Clark said the app works on data signals that Walmart uses to access shelf capacity and sales. He said Walmart has been using VizPick in the backroom for more than a year but recently moved it to the sales floor ahead of the holiday season.

“I feel like during the holiday season, our stores were more stocked than ever before. Because all of the inventory on the top shelf was worked down to the side counter more timely, and that helped sales soar during one of the most challenging times for demand in our stores,” Clark said.

SHELF LABELS
Digital shelf labels are also helping store employees locate inventory and reduce the task of paper price changes. Walmart is testing the technology across select stores in Northwest Arkansas and the Dallas market. Clark said the time and labor savings would be huge across 4,717 stores. Also, when employees are stocking shelves or picking online orders for store pickup, they can point their phones to the shelf, and the area lights up where the product is located, helping employees save time and energy looking for it.

“Something else that is really cool is that customers using their Walmart app to locate items while in-store can do the same thing. Type in the product or click on the product they are looking for, and the shelf label will light up,” Clark said.

He said store remodels that feature product vignettes and mannequins to help better merchandise inventory is a big step with the previous stack-them-high-and-watch-them-fly philosophy.

“We are not trying to be Target, but we are looking at our stores differently today,” he said. “They are engaging customers who are buying more. Our suppliers are a big part of the new display modulars and vignettes as we work together to see the best way to display products to evoke quality. We want suppliers to walk into stores and be proud of the way their products are displayed. We all serve the same customers.”