对抗亚马逊和塔吉特，沃尔玛用这5招

这些年来有关沃尔玛电子商务的故事一直是跌宕起伏，但最近发生的事情，简直是一浪高过一浪。

不过，作为今年《财富》500强榜首企业，这家零售巨擘面临着现实的挑战。对手亚马逊的一些战略举措一直让沃尔玛高度警惕，比如，其诸如语音助手Alexa那样的声控创新以及全食超市那样的意外收购。另一竞争者塔吉特公司则围绕着“进入城市”策略四处奔走，多方布局，打算吸引那些令人垂涎的消费群体。

那么，沃尔玛保持领先的诀窍在哪里呢？平价购物网站Jet.com（沃尔玛以30亿美元现金的代价收购了这个网站）创始人、沃尔玛美国电子商务业务现任首席执行官马克·洛尔，在洛杉矶Shop.org零售业大会上介绍了他的策略。洛尔告诉我，沃尔玛现在有1.4万名员工，他的工作重心一直是确保其具有像Jet.com的几百人那样的灵活性。

但这还不是全部。以下是沃尔玛发展电商的五条措施：

1. 拥抱声控未来

就在亚马逊继续向Echo系列声控智能设备投资之际，沃尔玛开始和Google Home共同开展这方面的研究。洛尔说，这是件大事，“要注意的不仅是技术，还有它会被赋予什么样的功能，这很重要……在销售和物流方面，技术可以把哪些以前或许不可能的事变成可能呢？”互联网能通过“更高效的产品目录”让零售商做得更好。声控使销售方法得到了类似的“再造”。“声控意味着最佳答案将变得比以往任何时候都要重要，因为人们不可能通过声控来浏览包含50乃至100件不同商品的目录。具有这种一对一个性化服务能力并且真正擅长这样做将成为赢家和输家的分水岭。”

2. 有目标地大举收购

沃尔玛在电商领域大举收购了Bonobos、Moosejaw、ShoeBuy和ModCloth等公司，洛尔说：“我们有两条不同的策略。就第一条来说，实际上是要设法加快现有店面的增长，而且最主要的内容就是资产收购。与对沃尔玛和Jet.com的业绩要求相比，它真的不那么重视所收购店铺的投资回报率。另一条策略……实际上就是关于对未来的思考。”

3. 重新考虑组织结构

洛尔接管沃尔玛电商业务时对关键部门做了一些调整，他认为此举有助于推动此项业务实现增长。洛尔说：“我采取的首批措施之一就是要求顾客关怀和顾客体验两个部门的主管直接向我汇报。我觉得端正以顾客为中心的态度真的很重要，而让他们直接向我汇报则是说明这一点的最佳方式。在我看来，你不仅在那样的层次上得到了更好的人员，顾客在公司中的重要性也得到了提升。”

4. 利用现有资产

沃尔玛拥有大量实体店铺不是什么秘密。仅在美国，沃尔玛商场的数量就几乎达到5000家。洛尔认为这些实体店是在数字领域实现增长的一大笔资产。他笑着说：“这是在沃尔玛工作最让我兴奋的地方之一，那就是完全可以利用分布在美国各地的4600家沃尔玛商场，它们覆盖了美国90%的人口，而且距离都不超过10英里（16.1公里）。如果同时把它们视为仓库，那么这些商场就已经盈利了。而且它们就在那儿，整卡车的商品都会送到那里。这是继续部署商品的最高效途径。所以我们需要的另外两项能力是从商场到住户的最后一哩运输和提货服务，这就是拼图的最后一块。”洛尔还说，这两项能力的建设正在顺利进行。

5. 激发员工活力

沃尔玛的体量远远超过洛尔被收购的初创公司Jet.com，那么他怎么确保自己可以让Jet.com的创业精神留在沃尔玛呢？洛尔说，关键就在于激发员工的活力。他指出：“你给别人信息，相信他们，给予他们力量，让他们跑起来并且让他们知道冒险会得到奖励而不是惩罚，这就是你需要创造的环境和文化。”（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林

The story of Walmart e-commerce has had its ups and downs over the years—but lately it's up, up, up.

Nonetheless, the retail giant—which tops this year's Fortune 500—has its work cut out for it. Rival Amazon keeps Walmart on its toes with voice-powered innovations like Alexa and surprise acquisitions like Whole Goods. Competitor Target bobs and weaves with a take-it-to-the-city strategy meant to appeal to coveted customer demographics.

What's the trick for Walmart to stay on top? Marc Lore, founder of Jet.com and now CEO of Walmart's U.S. e-commerce business, stopped by the Shop.org retail conference in Los Angeles to share his strategy. He told me that he's focused on making sure his 14,000 or so employees stay as nimble as the hundreds he had at Jet before Walmart acquired it for $3 billion in cash.

But that's not all. Here are five ways Walmart's moving ahead on e-commerce:

1. Embrace the Future (and the Future is Voice-Activated)

As Amazon continues to plow investment into its portfolio of voice-controlled Echo smart devices, Walmart is working with Google Home to the same effect. It's a big deal, Lore said. "It's important to look at not just the technology but what it enables...what does it enable in terms of merchandising and logistics that maybe wasn't possible before?" The Internet allowed retailers to be better merchants through a "more efficient catalog." Voice allows for a similar reframing of the practice of merchandising. "Voice means one best answer is going to be more important than it ever has before because you can't just get a list of 50 or 100 different things through voice. Having that one-to-one personalization and being really good at it is going to separate the winners from the losers."

2. Make Targeted, Tuck-in Acquisitions

"For us, two different strategies," Lore said of the company's aggressive e-commerce shopping spree that included Bonobos, Moosejaw, ShoeBuy, and ModCloth. "With respect to the first, it's really about trying to accelerate growth on the existing site and it's more of an asset purchase than anything else. It's not really as much about ROI on the site that we acquired as much as what it can do on Walmart and Jet. The other one...it's really about thinking into the future."

3. Rethink the Org Chart

When Lore took over Walmart's e-commerce operation, he made some key departmental changes that he believes helped jumpstart growth in the division. "One of the first things I did was made Customer Care and Customer Experience two direct reports to me," he said. "I think it's really important to be and have that sort of customer-centric view and no better way to make that point than to have those people report direct. Not only do you get better people, I think, when they're at that level but it elevates the customer within the organization."

4. Leverage Existing Assets

It's no secret that Walmart has a tremendous footprint of brick-and-mortar stores—almost 5,000 in the U.S. alone. Lore sees that physical infrastructure as a huge asset to achieving digital growth. "This is one of the things that gets me most excited about being at Walmart, just being able to leverage the 4,600 stores around the U.S. that are within 10 miles of 90% of the population," he said with a grin. "When you think about them doubling as warehouses, they're already profitable, they're already there, product is getting to them in full truckload quantities. It's the most efficient way to get product forward deployed. So the last mile from store to home and picking are the two other capabilities you need to finish the last piece of the puzzle." And those two capabilities, Lore added, are well underway.

5. Empower Employees

How does Lore ensure that he can preserve the entrepreneurial spirit of his acquired startup Jet within the far larger confines of Walmart? He said it's all about empowering employees. "If you give people information and trust them and empower them and let them run and have them know that they're going to be rewarded for taking risk and not be penalized for it," Lore said, "that's the kind of environment and culture you need to create."