Consider Walmart’s weaknesses and how other companies address them.
- manually stocked shelves
Consider Costco’s model of placing pallets of product on the floor. Most Walmart’s have the vertical space to go up. Obviously redesigning their store experience is expensive and difficult with a stagnating industry and a lot of staff that don’t like tech or change. But these are not hard problems. For large items like boxes of soda and cereal, this is simple, just add some flimsy cardboard shelves holding the rows together. For beauty products and small items like that keep the system and layout the same to keep things simple, but start working with manufacturers on palletized displays that satisfy their in store image requirements.
- poor buy online pickup at store experience, both online and in store.
Make it easier to shop a particular local Walmart for pickup and only the stock in that store. The same goes for shopping online for shipping and only those products sold by Walmart. Having three different experiences is good for consumers, but make it easier for the customer to specify which one they want.
- the notorious Walmart experience, and the notorious people of Walmart
This is a tough one that I don’t have a good answer for besides look to target and Trader Joe’s for inspiration while hiring sociologists and the advertising company behind fidget spinners.
- online purchase, in store pickup experience
In years past it made sense to force customers to walk through the entire store to do some annoying task. These days? I pay more, sometimes a lot, to not have to enter a store, or speak to underpaid and overworked staff there. Punch some new doors on the side of the the building, put in a few reefer fridges, some more shelves, and have the in house developers crank out a contactless pickup web app. Include
- innovate
For things I buy all the time, I’m not time sensitive. Hook customers on something addictively convenient like weekly grocery delivery of their staples with Walmart’s plus subscription. Stuff like milk, eggs, bread, cheese, deli meat, etc. also, if I know I’m having a big party in two weeks and don’t want to deal with the groceries I’d love a reliable way to 60 fresh avocados, 10 cases of beer, 20 bags of chips, and 30 pounds of meat without going to multiple stores. Right now the only way I can do this is by ringing the manager of the store and placing a special order. It shouldn’t even be that hard to logistically handle the ebbs and flow of demand. Problem is can someone build such a system profitably? If Walmart can’t, I doubt anyone could.