If you talk about companies that have developed their supply chain management efficiently, a few names that will probably come up first might be E-commerce giant AliBaba, or a distinguished company like Coca-Cola, who have a big market share in their industries. These giants have made quite a name for themselves, partially because of their excellent supply chain management. 

But another company that could easily be named in the same list as the companies mentioned above, is Walmart. This retail multinational is owned by the Walton family (majority owner) and is the largest company in the world by revenue. Walmart is investing massively in its supply chain, automation, and technology to become more efficient and to gain (even more) cost advantages over its competitors. Proof of this can be found in the fact that Walmart has been investing more than 11 billion dollars in their US department over the last 2 years and has spread this amount out over 3 areas: e-commerce, technology, and their supply chain (Danley, 2021). All these investments are in line with Walmart’s goal to provide the best seamless omnichannel shopping experience that they could offer (Banker, 2021). (According to one of Square’s writers, ‘an omnichannel strategy is a method that helps you create a seamless experience for customers across all the channels through which you sell’, and it connects your online and offline channels in a way that makes shopping or ordering easier for every customer. An example of an omnichannel experience could be scanning a QR code in a restaurant to see the menu, and having the waiter take your order offline (Jordan, 2021).)

But what makes Walmart’s supply chain so good? One example would be the retail link system they use to give suppliers real-time data of their sales. With this system, Walmart can provide their suppliers with all the data they would need to supply Walmart with products at the right time. Next to this, suppliers have access to inventories, invoice status, sales forecasts and more, to prepare them as good as possible to deliver when needed. The biggest convincer of all would be how Walmart makes it possible for even the smallest of suppliers to get involved in this expensive transition: there is no need for the small suppliers to invest in expensive and extensive software, because they can download Walmart’s free software (Laudon, 2020). 

I chose to write this blog about Walmart because last semester, we had a case about the company for our Senior Management & Information Technologies class, which I found very interesting. I found the case interesting mainly because of two things. Firstly, because of the high investment of Walmart and there always being a risk when investing in technology (expensive investment, not sure if it is the right fit), but even more in an early stage, such as in the 2000’s. Secondly, because Walmart supports small suppliers by providing them with free software to be directly integrated in Walmart’s systems, which helps them evade high investments in information systems and which can help them develop as a company.