Wal-Mart Versus Amazon: Is the Game Over?

December 6, 2018

Wal-Mart likes to be on top. Wal-Mart’s sales, however, have fallen due to Amazon and other online retailers, but they will not go down without a fight. Wal-Mart has decided to fight digital sales with a bigger, better digital supply chain super structure. The Motley Fool reports on Wal-Mart’s biggest investment in, “IBM And Microsoft Are Upgrading Wal-Mart’s Digital Supply Chain.”

Wal-Mart has teamed up with Microsoft and IBM to revamp its supply chain. Azure is the official cloud infrastructure of Wal-Mart with an exclusive five year contract. All of the retailer’s Web sites will now run natively on Azure and taking advantage of Microsoft’s machine learning and data management tools. Azure’s insightful tools will also streamline Wal-Mart’s supply chain, watch energy levels, and control devices.

Wal-Mart uses IBM’s blockchain technology to monitor product origins and IBM also built an onboard system for suppliers. How does the new supply chain help Wal-Mart:

“The modernization of Wal-Mart’s supply chain with cloud, IoT, and blockchain services could improve the retailer’s operating margin, which has been weighed down by e-commerce and overseas investments, store renovations, and wage hikes in recent years. That digital foundation can also pave the way for Wal-Mart to install more robots in its warehouses and stores, thereby reducing its overall labor costs. A streamlined supply chain would also help Wal-Mart avoid food safety problems, which are becoming increasingly common across supply chains and multiple countries and states.”

The new system will also help Wal-Mart regain some of the losses from its China suppliers due to Trumps tariffs.

The team up between Wal-Mart, IBM, and Microsoft is a joint effort to counter Amazon-their common enemy. But is the game over for Wal-Mart? Police in many municipalities find that Wal-Mart is a frequent stop and not for a hot dog and a soft drink. Perhaps Wal-Mart ecommerce would be less exciting than a visit to some establishments?

Whitney Grace, December 6, 2018

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Amazon, ECommerce, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.