Welcome to Episode 33 of the Cloud Wars Horizon Minute — featuring news and commentary hosted by Acceleration Economy analyst Tom Smith. Each episode provides insights into one or more Innovation Accelerators on the Cloud Wars Horizon. This episode touches on the financial results of Walmart and what they mean for the retail industry and other companies that have faced supply chain challenges in the last couple of years.
Highlights
00:35 — After all the supply chain problems that have dominated news coverage, it’s nice to report some good news — the light at the end of a very dark supply chain tunnel.
00:50 — Walmart, the largest retailer and company in the world, gave indications that the worst of its inventory problems are in the rearview. Further, its better-than-expected financial results from last week back up that view.
01:10 — Walmart’s CFO and CEO made bullish comments about how tech, including some developed internally, is helping. I see at least three tech factors at play:
- The Vizpick tool accelerates the movement of inventory from the backroom to the sales floor.
- The company has expanded the use of autonomous robots that speed up the filling of orders while increasing inventory accuracy.
- In August, Walmart bought a company called Volt Systems whose software delivers current store-level data to forecast and optimize product assortment.
02:10 — Walmart is investing in industry cloud technology, as Cloud Wars founder Bob Evans has reported on multiple occasions.
02:34 — Discounting was a big part of the inventory reduction.
02:45 — The results of the rival retailer, Target, weren’t as encouraging. Yet, the company maintained its full-year forecast after clearing out a lot of inventory through discounting
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