Current Event #6: Customer Centricity

Walmart is always in the retail news. Whether they're building more stores, remodeling old stores, or having labor issues while trying to run the store, Walmart can keep themselves in the retail headlines and although I've tried to steer away from their news (because there are other retailers!), it's been hard and in this case, inevitable. The new platform that Walmart is launching is...interesting. An article from retailingtoday.com says, "Walmart has entered a new relationship with SymphonyIRI Group, through which the two will develop a solution that supports the retailer's customer-centric initiatives". The article goes on to explain these initiatives will be for web based customers and will, "deliver unique, custom, Walmart-focused shopper insights, while supporting Walmart's collaborative planning process by providing a dedicated shopper insights portal of user-friendly, customizable reports shared between Walmart and its supplier partners". I couldn't help but compare this site, which will be called Customer Advantage (not very creative, aren't there plenty of loyalty cards already called this), to the Sears managemylife.com site. The managemylife site is primarily for CUSTOMERS to use both before and after purchase. It is solely for their purpose to get more information on their products, manufacturers and manuals. The Walmart site however, is for suppliers and manufacturers to better understand growing customer needs. While this in the long run may help the retailer focus on more customer centric programs, it seems like the same thing every other retailer has done through the loyalty cards (studying shopping behaviors)


I asked one of the merchandising girls at work about her opinion on Walmart launching this site. Her first point was that Walmart is late. She said that plenty of retailers already have these sites (to my dismay she didn't know about the Sears site!). She also said that she didn't know if Walmart customers actually want/need the site. Her issue was that Walmart customers have a love/hate relationship with the retailer (I can agree) and that if this kind of site, which would be watching shopping behaviors and sharing those behaviors with many third parties was known about, then customers may have be uneasy about shopping with Walmart, particularly online (where most shoppers are already weary). Her second point was that she didn't think Walmart was very customer driven. I asked her about the "Great low prices, everyday" mantra and she said that the low prices cannot trump the customer un-friendliness in store. She's ultimately not at all impressed by Walmart's attempt.


I personally think that although the Walmart site may seem beneficial to suppliers and manufacturers to know information about the Walmart customer, its simply online. If the online AND store customer centricity does not translate than the site could possibly be a waste. Maybe a loyalty program in-store too, would help the situation but then again, Walmart is such an easy retailer to just go too. Some customers may go more than once a day in which case Walmart knows where its loyalties lie. I'm skeptical that the site will actually benefit customers directly (like the Sears site is specifically for them to use). While many of the in-store customer service attempts by Walmart may appear catered to the customer (money services, returns, etc.) the actual treatment of customers tells otherwise. The site seems to benefit Walmart more so than the customer. If this is going to be a common conception for the site, it won't help Walmart's reputation...at all. 

Source: Retailing (2011, July 25). "Walmart, SymphonyIRI to introduce Customer Advantage platform" Retreived on July 25, 2011 from http://www.retailingtoday.com/article/walmart-symphonyiri-introduce-customer-advantage-platform