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Walmart Launches its First AI Store, Isn’t Trying to Replace Humans with Machines

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Last year, Amazon launched a chain of its AI-powered convenience stores, i.e. Amazon Go. The stores are cashier-less and have cameras all around in the stores to charge the customers automatically. Yesterday, Walmart, the biggest retail store franchise, also launched an AI-powered store, i.e. Intelligent Retail Lab (IRL), in Levittown, New York, which is a bit different from its contemporary Amazon’s cashier-less stores.

Walmart has launched a store similar to its other stores, except it will be operated by intelligent technology. The new Walmart store, like Amazon Go, has got cameras over the ceiling, but these cameras have not been installed to automatically charge the customers but will keep the track of the inventory of the store.

walmart IRL store
Image Source: Tech Crunch

Yes! The company has confirmed that now the store will be able to manage the inventory through AI. Reportedly, if any of the items get out of stock, even from a single shelf, the cameras will inform the sales persons around, to restock the shelves. Also, if a fresh fruit has been on the shelf for a longer time, the cameras will indicate the sales persons to replace that fruit with a fresh one. E.g. if bananas on a shelf have got bruises, the cameras will ask the salesperson to replace them. This way, the salespersons will not have to roam around the store all the time to keep a check on the inventory and will only go to the back-inventory when the cameras will notify them for replacement or to re-stock the shelves.

Since operating so many cameras all the time will require a lot of data and data storage, the company has built a data centre in the inventory itself. Though the data will be stored only for a week, the sensors and the cameras will pump out 1.6 TB of data per second.

Since it is not a cashier-less store, like Amazon Go, the store is having over 100 employees and is selling over 30,000 items. Also, the store is a 50,000 square foot store, having giant servers bathed in the blue light situated inside the store, which can be easily seen by the public. Also, the retailer has built an AI-powered informational store and a Welcome store for its customers, where they can know about its technical specifications.

For the people who are with the shoppers, can spend their time in front of the AI-powered interactive wall, built inside the store. The wall is able to imitate the body gestures and postures by estimating body positions and is quite a good pass time.

By far, the new Walmart store is quite interesting, and it seems that the company is trying to take full advantage of AI by making its use in most practical ways. And, the company has ensured that it is not up to replacing the human jobs at all, but is trying to reduce the workload for its staff.

Walmart to Replace Apple as No. 3 Online Retailer in the U.S. by the End of 2018

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According to a report released on Friday, Walmart has overtaken Apple as America’s third-largest online retailer. Last year, Apple was at the third position, after Amazon and eBay in the list of the top retailers of the U.S. with 3.8% share in the total online sale (2017). Due to a decrease in the sales of Apple’s smartphones and electronic devices this year, Walmart was successful in surpassing Apple and taking over its position on the list.

walmart
Image Source: pymnts.com

The eMarketers had estimated a boost in the sales of Walmart that it will have approximately 3.7% of the share in the online sales in the U.S., but as the Walmart’s online business is growing quickly, its share in the total online sales of the U.S., raised to 4 per cent. Apple managed to get only a per cent rise in its online sales from the previous year, i.e., 3.9 per cent. It is expected that the growth in the sales of Walmart would grow by 39.4 per cent, just behind the sales growth of Wayfair, that is expected to be 40.1 per cent, by the end of 2018.

The latest prediction by the eMarketers shows that by the end of the year Walmart will capture $20.91 billion online retail spending this year. Walmart, itself, had also reported its third-quarter profits with revenue of $124.9 billion, 1.4 per cent up from a year ago. The company has seen a rapid growth in its sales due to its efforts through every means.

Wallmart has adopted the right technology to ensure a better customer experience, providing them with an omnichannel platform to use all its services. The app provided by Wallmart helps in easy shopping as well as let them track their orders and locate the items in the store using digital maps. In the holiday season, it has also got rid of the $35 fees for its two-day delivery and has offered no-delivery charges for other delivery options. After Wallmart, the two-day delivery service has also been adopted by Amazon for its festive-season sales.

Walmart U.S. CEO Greg Foran said, “We can provide a much better customer experience because we are in stock of the right item, at the right time at the same time it is going to help us be much more precise.”

The tech giant, along with its online retail business, is also planning to raise outlook of its physical stores to increase up to 3 per cent share in its sales for the fiscal year 2019, targeting the same years earning up to $4.65 to $4.80 a share.

Buy Bitcoin for $1 in the Walmart Stores

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Image Source: bitcoinexchangeguide.com

According to a post, by TheKayleMain, in The CryptoCurrency subreddit, Walmart is planning to sell a set of six BitCoins for just $1 USD. The post was released on Monday, and included a picture, that displayed packages consisting of BitCoins that were bannered under the name of “Everyday Low Price”.

The BitCoin is a decentralised cryptocurrency that is created and held electronically. According to the Reddit readers, these BitCoins are a bit different in its manufacturing, as these are covered with chocolate. Pennsylvania based chocolate manufacturing company, the Frankford Candy & Chocolate Company, will cover the BitCoins with milk chocolate weighing about 1.48 Oz and will be wrapped with golden tinfoil.

According to the crypto forum, for now, these chocolate BitCoins will only be available in America. The launch of such BitCoin chocolates can make many other prospective investors to approach Wallmart as the intermediate for their market-to-market purchase of BitCoins.

Bitcoin’s price has already seen a slump from $20000 to $6000, this year, but, $1 exchange price for six bitcoins is quite inexpensive. Until now, Wallmart has not confirmed the news, but, Frankford gave a hint by tweeting on Friday, “Lots of Milk Chocolate + Bitcoins = Pure happiness.” With the tweet, it also posted a picture of chocolates covered with the gold foil having a Bitcoin sign on it.

Doug McMillon: CEO of Walmart

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Success is the result of abundant knowledge. Human mind is capable of absorbing as much as knowledge we feed to it. A person working in a particular field acquires deeper and deeper knowledge of that field. But the essential part is to extend that horizon ‘wide’ along with the ‘deep dive’. Walmart made a smart move to handover the CEO position to a person whose mind is equipped with the knowledge from basic to the advance level. Doug McMillon – a true learner who has successfully extended his knowledge horizons in every possible direction.

Doug, 51, became the fifth CEO of the world’s largest retailer, Walmart, in 2014. Unlike some other big shot CEOs his story begins right from the bottom. Doug joined the company in his summer vacations way back when he was just a teenager. His summer internship may not have given him glamorous paychecks but was the beginning towards his 2014 journey. As a summer student he was handed over the work of unloading the trucks at one of the Walmart distribution centers.

Born on 17th October, 1966, Doug was raised with his parents in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The McMillon family moved to Bentonville, Arkansas when Doug was just 16. In 1984, he took the summer job at Walmart as they were now residing in the retailer giant’s hometown. McMillon holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas and he went further to get a masters in MBA from University of Tulsa.

During his MBA degree, McMillon joined Walmart in 1990 as a buyer trainee in the athletic department of the Walmart store in Tulsa. After successfully completing his MBA in 1991 he decided to move back to the Walmart’s, and his own, hometown, Bentonville where he joined the buyer trainee program. McMillon took numerous job roles including buyer and merchandiser, working for the deals in the food, clothing, and crafts departments, etc. This marked the beginning of a consistent raise in McMillon’s career.

From a general merchandise manager of Walmart’s wholesale store, Sam’s Club, to reaching at the company’s highest position i.e. CEO in 2006 proves McMillon’s worth and efforts. Under his leadership the Sam’s Club focused mainly on the small-business owners and boosted its growth with respect to the strong contenders like Costco. In the year 2009, McMillon took over Mike Duke to lead Walmart’s international division. His efforts again worked like a magic on the company and shot the profits to a whopping 29% with the introduction of ‘everyday low price’ mantra into the international market.

McMillon’s consistent success rate pushed Walmart to replace the CEO of the company. After all they still wanted to be in the business and compete with rapidly growing e-retailers like Amazon. Then came the big decision to move McMillon to the board of directors of Walmart. And, on February 1, 2014 Doug McMillon was promoted to the CEO of Walmart once again replacing Mike Duke.

McMillon, during his role as a CEO till now, has focused on his company employees like no one has ever done before. He has constantly raised the wages of his employees from the moment he took over the CEO seat. He believes in the statement, ‘happier workers and better customer service’. The increased competition with e-retailers like Amazon, McMillon’s long-term goal is to increase investments in e-commerce business and create a ‘seamless shopping experience’. The biggest challenge Doug McMillon is facing is the expansion of Walmart into Asia’s two major countries, India and China.

One thing to learn and to believe in this man’s vision is that he has managed to rise up from the dock and sit on the high-profile chair just in the span of three decades. His abilities, courage to take risks and strategic business methods has and, in future, definitely lead the company to the positions it has never seen before.