By
Steve Muchoki
December 20th, 2023
Walmart’s e-commerce chief Marc Lore is retiring from the company after five years of positively impacting US online sales.
The outgoing head of e-commerce operation at American multinational retail corporation Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT), Marc Lore, revealed that the company’s next revolution is the shopper’s refrigerator. Lore joined Walmart in 2016 when the retail company acquired Jet.com for $3.3 billion. Meanwhile, WMT stock is in the red.
On the 15th of January, Lore stated that Walmart is making efforts to attend to its e-commerce orders. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, the e-commerce chief said:
“I think the evolution of and building that muscle is to go directly to the refrigerator, and eventually get to a point where people are just kept in stock of the things that they want, and I think Walmart is uniquely positioned to be able to pull that off. And I think that’ll be a big revolution.”
Notably, Walmart has over 4,700 stores across the US, and about 90% of US citizens reside within 10 miles of a Walmart store.
Over time, Walmart has been offering easier and safer services to its customers. In 2019, the company launched its InHome Delivery, where an accredited Walmart associate delivers their grocery orders directly into the customers’ refrigerator. The InHome delivery also helps customers save time and conveniently have their orders delivered to their homes even if they are away.
At the time of unveiling the new InHome Delivery service during a shareholder meeting, Lore said Walmart would train its associates on how to go about the deliveries.
Additionally, Lore said the new service would initially begin in three cities. The cities are Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and Vero Beach. The “vetted” Walmart associates in charge of deliveries would wear cameras to access the customers’ homes. The wearables cameras would enable customers to monitor the deliveries remotely.
Recently, Walmart announced its partnership with HomeValet to pilot smart box technology. The company said that the smart box could store frozen, refrigerated, and pantry items. Customers’ orders would be delivered in the smart box and placed at their front door.
WMT Stock Performance
Walmart’s e-commerce chief Marc Lore is retiring from the company after five years of positively impacting US online sales. Walmart online sales across the US grew by 37% in 2019. At the peak of the pandemic, the company’s online sales in the US advanced by about 79%.
Commenting on Lore’s impact on Walmart, CEO Doug McMillon said:
“Marc’s leadership helped ensure we were positioned to respond to the demand driven by the pandemic this year. All of this progress is the result of good work from a lot of people, of course, but Marc’s expertise and aggressiveness have been game changing.”
Walmart has increased nearly 25.82% over the past year and 0.34% in its year-to-date record. The company’s stock has also jumped 1.18% over the last three months. Despite the growth in its US online sales, WMT stock has declined 0.91% in the last month. The shares also plunged 1.80% over the last five trading days. On the previous trading day, on January 15, WMT stock lost 1.57% of its value to trade at $144.64.