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Wal-Mart: Hard and Soft Technology

Shameka Lemon

American Public University

BUSN310: Business Theory

Linda Mae Ashar

6/28/2020
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Wal-Mart: Hard and Soft Technology

Technology Strategy

Wal-Mart is currently using advanced technologies, both hard and soft, to improve its

performance across its stores, domestically (in the USA), and globally (overseas retail and

wholesale stores). With technologies such as IoT, Block-chain, Artificial Intelligence,

Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality, Wal-Mart is

revolutionizing the way typical tasks and operations are carried out. Nevertheless, there are

always barriers in the way of any technological innovation (Joy, 2014). This paper explores some

of the hard and soft technology used in Wal-Mart, discusses potential barriers faced, discusses

the strategy, and suggests ways to protect Wal-Mart's technology.

Hard Technology

AI for Store Cleanliness and Stock Management

Wal-Mart is using robots in its stores for stock maintenance, management, and store

cleanliness. The retailer has worked with Bossa Nova and A&M University to develop camera-

based vision systems used by the robots to identify under-stocked shelves as well as wet floors

(Verdon, 2020). The robots then inform the employees concerned. Wal-Mart has also worked

with Brain Corporation to design robots that can scrub and clean floors when needed.

AR for Enhancing Consumer Experience

Wal-Mart has installed AR scanners on its mobile application. When a customer points

their camera on items on the shelf, the app displays the product's prices, names, and ratings

(Perez, 2018). Wal-Mart has also worked with Zappar to perpetuate AR experience in their

stores. Zap-codes are scanned to bring the fullness of Augmented Reality. The retailer's purpose
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of using AR in its stores is to command more attention from customers and improve their

shopping experience.

VR to Improve Customer-Employee Experience

Wal-Mart is using VR to train its employees. They learn by viewing modules via VR

headsets. This technology helps the associates recreate real-life experiences within the stores to

experiment with, learn, and deal with daunting situations. Acquiring and using Spatialand VR

company to enrich associate education as well as enhance shopper experience has seen Wal-Mart

arise to be one of the first corporations to benefit from VR (Holley, 2019).

Soft Technology

Autonomous Vehicle Use for Product Delivery

In late 2018, Wal-Mart partnered with the Ford motor company to test the possibility of

delivering products to customers' doorsteps. The collaboration would be aimed at collecting data

regarding customer preferences and connect shoppers with the products they would need

(Rouhiainen, 2018). Wal-Mart also worked with Waymo, a Google subsidiary, to work on an

online grocery project. All of this would improve convenience for both the retailer and shoppers.

Cloud Computing to Improve Consumer Experience

In 2018, Wal-Mart agreed with Microsoft Corporation to use Azure, the latter's cloud

computing platform, for five years. Wal-Mart would be converting all of its applications and

websites to run on Azure as the native platform (Parekh, 2019). As part of the cloud computing

partnership, the retailer announced that it would open a joint engineering center in Austin s part

of the project. Wal-Mart has resultantly been able to effectively keep safe and analyze crucial

data that is useful in boosting its retail and wholesale portfolio as well as increase online

commerce.
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IoT and Blockchain to Track Safety of Food Products

Wal-Mart has worked with IBM to come up with the Food Trust Blockchain for its

grocery business. Through this, food is carefully traced from the farm to the retail store, ensuring

transparency. Suppliers of green groceries are required to use the blockchain to determine their

products' origin before submitting to Wal-Mart (Hacioğlu, 2019). IoT is used to manage the

safety of food in Wal-Mart stores. IoT technology collects data from strategically-placed sensors

from the farm to the store.

Technology Barriers

Most of Wal-Mart Technology is powered by artificial intelligence from floor-scrubbing

robots, autonomous delivery vehicles, AI, and VR. AI is quite a new phenomenon in the world of

technology, and its adoption is faced with wide criticism. There is an array of technology barriers

to Wal-Mart both in its domestic and global environments. Blockchain and IoT technology is

expensive and still not a hundred percent accurate/foolproof. Most suppliers are reluctant when it

comes to complying with buyer demands. Wal-Mart is known for its use of the cost-leadership

strategy in its operations. Suppliers end up carrying the burden of selling their merchandise at

low costs. Implementing the blockchain can be costly, and hence Wal-Mart stands to lose

suppliers and profit. The accuracy of this technology is also not fully confirmed.

Wal-Mart is implementing AI technology for the automation of most of its store

operations. For example, floor-scrubbing and shelf managing robots are fast replacing human

employees (60 Minutes). This has seen Wal-Mart laying-off a big chunk of workers both in the

USA and overseas. Unemployment due to such a move is on a high, especially in places like

China, where Wal-Mart has a vast number of stores. Additionally, the AR scanners used to scan

product information are still being developed and not very accurate when it comes to generating
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results. Possible downtime or code glitches can result in wrong information that may mislead

shoppers. Most shoppers are not also used to such new technology, and this may discourage

potential buyers from shopping at the sophisticated Wal-Mart stores. Most employees are also

not well-trained; therefore, they may be prone to making mistakes when interacting with

technological devices in the working environment.

Overcoming Barriers

The previous section has delineated the different technology barriers to Wal-Mart in its

both domestic and global environment. First off, Wal-Mart should look for ways to reassign

employees rather than fire them when introducing new technology. Moreover, shoppers should

be allowed to choose which kind of technology to interact with when shopping. A lifeless store

without human associates, but robots all over may not appeal to different shoppers. As a strategy

to retain its workforce, Wal-Mart should assign human associates to liven up its stores while

compensating them accordingly. The idea here is to improve and enhance consumer experience

as well as the customer-employee relationship and experience. Rolling out technology

innovations at its store without piloting is not the best idea as it could bring about serious

consequences. Implementing the right adoption strategies is the best move.

Protecting Wal-Mart Technology

Wal-Mart has either solely or collectively invented a new technology to run its retail

outlets efficiently. Despite numerous cases of copyright infringement that the retailer has been

involved in since inception, it has ensured that all its patents and copyrights are in place. An

excellent example of a patent that was filed by the retailer is the self-driving shopping cart. It has

features such as voice input, image capturing, route planning, video surveillance, self-driving,

and a biometric handle that reads temperature and stress level of a shopper. Critics say that this is
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a step that Wal-Mart is taking to monopolize the shopping cart business. In short terms, Wal-

Mart should keep on patenting and copyrighting its gadgets and in-house manufactured

equipment from getting into the wrong hands.

Conclusion

As a fast-growing multinational retailer and wholesaler, Wal-Mart has invested billions

of money on IT systems to improve customer experience, customer-employer relationships, and

safety measures through surveillance as well as cloud spaces to store consumer data. Although

its use of consumer information to determine preferences has raised concern across its domestic

and global environment, Wal-Mart has continued developing more and more technology. The

invention of most of Wal-Mart's technologies (e.g., AI robots, cloud computing, AR, VR, and

driverless automobiles for product distribution) has seen the retailing giant increasing its sales

both in its brick and mortar stores as well as online. Throughout its journey, the company has

also faced technology barriers such as customer dissatisfaction, poor adoption strategies, and

legal problems. However, the retailer is working hard to maintain its position as the world's

largest retailer by fighting off criticism, improving its products and services, and remaining

competitive.
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References

60 Minutes. (2013, January 13). Are robots hurting job growth? CBS. [Video File.] Available on

YouTube (2016, April 12)  at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8e6ZXOHolo  (16.43

min. Close-captioned. Title on YouTube: "Robotics 60 minutes")

Joy, M. (2014, December 4). Technological environment - international business.

[PPT]. https://www.slideshare.net/manumelwin/technological-environment-international-

business

Parekh, N. (2019). The Future of Extraordinary Design. Cork: BookBaby.

Hacioğlu, U. (2019). Digital business strategies in blockchain ecosystems. New York, NY:

Springer Nature.

Rouhiainen, L. (2018). Artificial intelligence: 101 Things You Must Know Today About Our

Future. Lasse Rouhiainen.

Holley, P. (2019). Walmart has added virtual reality to its assessment of an employee’s potential.

Retrieved 28 June 2020, from

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/07/12/walmarts-latest-tool-assessing-

whether-employees-deserve-promotion-virtual-reality/

Perez, S. (2018). Walmart adds an AR scanner to its iOS app for product comparisons. Retrieved

28 June 2020, from https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/01/walmart-adds-an-ar-scanner-to-

its-ios-app-for-product-comparisons/#:~:text=Walmart%20is%20giving%20augmented

%20reality,help%20customers%20with%20product%20comparisons.

Verdon, J. (2020). Brave New World Of Retail: Walmart’s Robots Are Just The Beginning.

Retrieved 28 June 2020, from

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanverdon/2020/01/14/brave-new-world-of-retail-

walmarts-robots-are-just-the-beginning/#107228644e34
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