design:retail - June 2015 - (Page 6)

editor's note 006 If Walmart's Doing It... ALISON EMBREY MEDINA EXECUTIVE EDITOR alison.medina@emeraldexpo.com @dretaileditor A BOUT A DECADE ago, I sat in a conference room and heard Charles Zimmerman, then in charge of Walmart's sustainability eﬀorts, proclaim to the audience that Walmart was the largest consumer of energy on the planet. That means Walmart physically used more electricity, gas and heat than any other company in the world to keep those massive stores comfortable and cozy. So what did they do about it? Everything. Walmart instituted daylighting with programmed back-up lighting into its stores. It closed its refrigerator cases, lined them with energy-eﬃcient LEDs and put them on motion sensors. It did a mass overhaul on its HVAC systems, and figured out how to reuse gray water in all its bathroom facilities. It put solar panels on the ceilings, and worked with local farmers to bring produce in from closer distances, aiming to lesson its overall carbon footprint. In short, Walmart did what it could to spark a big part of the green movement that swept over retail in the ﬁrst decade of this century. When Walmart says they are going to do something, they do it. And they do it big. And they are at it again, but under a completely diﬀerent context. Now in 2015, Walmart recently has been named the biggest IT investor in retail. Scratch that-not just in retail-they are the biggest spender in IT across industries worldwide. According to "The Big Guns: IDC's Worldwide Top 10 IT Spenders" report, Walmart is estimated to spend $10.16 billion JUNE 2015 DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM on IT, nearly doubling second-place Bank of America's estimated $5.33 billion. And we're not just talking about servers and laptops, either. In fact, Walmart is responding to customer demand for digital-infused in-store experiences. The company has already announced that it will dedicate a large portion of its IT budget over the next two years to the integration of physical and digital. "The big price for us in the future goes back to this integration of digital and physical," said Greg Foran, CEO of Walmart U.S., in an article for Retail Info Systems News. "We're excited about that. We have some good ideas in that space, and we've got to make sure that we develop the tools and the technology to get there." Walmart already has launched a mobile app, an electronic pricematching system (Savings Catcher), print-athome coupons, Click & Collect, and personalized online shopping experiences based on location, weather and previous purchases. The company is opening four new U.S. e-commerce fulfillment centers in 2016, each averaging 1.2 million sq. ft. Walmart's 2015 Annual Report cites: "We continue to use our stores to test innovations like order pickup and grocery home shopping to position Walmart as the global leader in integrating digital and physical retailing." If Walmart builds it, the rest will come. Or maybe they already have. Check out the retailers in this issue that already are experimenting with bridging the personalized digital retailing experience with the high-touch world of physical bricks-and-mortar stores. And in every issue of design:retail, don't miss our newly revamped innovation department, now called "clicks & mortar," where we take a peak at some of the most cutting-edge technologies and concepts bridging that gap between the digital and physical retail realms. The ideas are already ﬂying. What's in-store next for you? Illustration by SHANNON MAY http://www.DESIGNRETAILONLINE.COM

design:retail - June 2015

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