America's No. 1 financial conglomerate

Chapter 425 The Chaos at Walmart

In August, the town of Bentonville, Arkansas, was enveloped in the sweltering heat of the Missouri River Valley.

The intense heat, carrying the distinctive red soil of the Mississippi River basin, was like an invisible steamer, rendering the small town of only 50,000 people utterly silent.

In the Walmart headquarters campus, Monk, clutching a printed manuscript with creased edges, strode quickly through a corridor covered with a light gray carpet.

"Just letting you know, I need to see Mr. Glass." Monk stopped in front of the president's office, his voice filled with barely concealed anxiety.

Secretary Lucy, who was typing on her computer, looked up and said, "Mr. Monk, President Glass is on the phone. Please wait in the waiting area."

After Monk turned and left, Lucy got up and went into her office. She saw Glass put down the phone before reporting, "President Glass, Monk has arrived."

"Let him wait." Glass's voice was deep as a cello, carrying an unquestionable authority.

The CEO, who has been at the helm of Walmart for nearly a decade, had his eyes fixed on the document labeled "e-commerce" on his mahogany desk. His brows furrowed into Uncle Sam's signature frown, and his thoughts drifted back to more than a year ago.

At that moment, the red maple leaves outside the office window were turning autumn colors, and Robert Davis stood in front of his desk, holding a thick market analysis report in his hands.

"Robert, the new store in Mississippi broke its single-day sales record." That day, Glass's fingertips tapped rhythmically on the report. "Do you know what that means? It means that 300 million Americans still prefer physical shelves and hearing the cashier's 'Happy Shopping!' to clicking a mouse on a cold computer screen."

Robert Davis's Adam's apple bobbed violently as he handed the documents forward.

"But we need to know that Amazon has expanded its Seattle warehouse again, this is the third time in six months." His voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement.

"And then there's their revenue growth rate. I think we must pay attention to e-commerce. Compared to Amazon, Walmart has advantages in every aspect: our distribution centers, our product categories, our capital and personnel, our..."

"Alright." Glass raised his hand to interrupt him, his eyes showing impatience.

"Amazon?" He scoffed, picked up the data Robert Davis had collected on the table, glanced at it, put it down, and scoffed dismissively, "A small bookstore with less revenue than our toy division. What's there to pay attention to?"

"When Mr. Sam founded Walmart, he said that the essence of retail is the connection between people, not the dialogue between machines."

Robert's face flushed red, but he still tried to persuade Walmart, hoping they would see the future of e-commerce. "Sir, I'm willing to bet my job. I hope you'll let me try. If online sales don't reach ten million dollars within six months, I'll resign."

Glass's fingers hovered over the edge of the report for a long time, recalling Sam Walton's dying words.

"We must safeguard our logistics system; it's Walmart's lifeline."

This final statement allowed Walmart to reduce product costs to the lowest in the industry through its "direct sourcing plus unified distribution" model, which is also the cornerstone of its Everyday Low Prices promise.

Glass shook his head. "Sorry, I can't agree to disrupt Walmart's logistics system for an e-commerce platform with no future in sight."

Compared to the investments in building a website and establishing an e-commerce department, Glass is more concerned with the safe operation of the logistics and warehousing system.

If e-commerce goes online, then logistics and warehousing departments will inevitably have to connect, and the logistics and warehousing system will inevitably be affected.

Christmas is just two months away, the biggest sales season in America, and Glass couldn't possibly let the other party try it.

The phone on his desk suddenly rang, its sharp ringing pulling Glass back to reality from his reverie.

He glanced at the caller ID, then picked up the receiver. "Come straight to my office. I'll have Lucy wait for you at the door."

He hung up the phone and instructed the doorway, "Robert's here. Go and greet him."

Lucy paused for a moment, then nodded and walked out.

Robert Davis?

The young man who hastily resigned a year ago wearing an old shirt?

She walked quickly to the elevator, her mind replaying fragmented memories of him.

She remembered that the other person had been poached by eBay a year ago and was now eBay's technical director. She never expected that the person President Glass wanted to meet was him.

The elevator doors opened with a ding, and a man in a custom Armani suit stepped out.

The well-tailored clothing accentuated his tall and upright figure, and the Rolex gold watch on his wrist gleamed brightly. He was a completely different person from the slightly slovenly young man he had been at Walmart.

"What are you thinking about?" Robert's voice came from behind them. Although they weren't very close, they knew each other.

"Huh?" Lucy snapped back to reality, her cheeks instantly flushing red. She hurriedly tidied her hair, her voice slightly stammering, "N-nothing... President Glass is waiting for you, please come in."

Watching him walk into the office, she suddenly felt a pang of regret. Why hadn't she realized he was a potential catch? She wondered if he was married now.

Seeing that the office door was closed, Lucy personally went to make the other person a cup of coffee.

Making coffee was just an excuse; she was more interested in knowing why Glass had invited Robert.

The first thing she heard surprised her greatly.

"Robert, Walmart needs you." Glass's tone was very serious and certain.

"I'm not afraid to admit it, but Walmart's online store was a complete mess after only three days. The website was poorly managed and received numerous complaints. The worst part was the warehousing situation; it was absolutely disastrous. The online and offline operations were all mixed up, everyone was scrambling around, and mistakes were happening everywhere."

Glass was somewhat discouraged and regretful. "You were right. E-commerce does indeed have great potential for development."

Although Walmart's online marketplace only operated for three days, it increased Walmart's retail sales by 0.3% in those three days.

For a retail empire like this, a single day's performance increase is not surprising, but three consecutive days of increases must be related to e-commerce.

Is 0.3% a lot?

not much.

However, if it only took three days, and compared to Walmart's massive scale, then the future looks very promising.

If Walmart's annual sales can grow by 5% to 10% due to e-commerce, Glass will have the confidence to ask the board for a large bonus as a reward.

Glass looked at him with a puzzled expression, wondering what Walmart had done wrong.

The other party said they could think of it, and that it was Walmart's own inherent problems that led to this situation.

Tell me about it.

Robert didn't hide anything, explaining with a smile, "You don't even have a decent server cluster, and the technical director of the e-commerce department is practically a jack-of-all-trades."

"I tried visiting Walmart's website on its first day of operation, and the loading time was over forty seconds, which is unbelievable."

After thanking Lucy for the coffee she placed in front of him, Robert spoke eloquently, "As for the chaos in logistics and warehousing you mentioned, it's because Walmart hasn't established a more efficient electronic product catalog."

Who would have thought that this retail giant, known for its everyday low prices and seemingly at the forefront of the retail industry, is actually an old-fashioned company still stuck in the era of paper catalogs?

While the global logistics system has indeed been digitized for a long time, many small local warehouses and individual stores still use paper to manage product catalogs and warehouse operations.

When online orders come in, sorters have to first find the location in a thick catalog and then manually enter it into the system. How can it not be chaotic?

"So Walmart needs you." Davis's voice was earnest. "Come back to Walmart and lead this e-commerce division."

Robert didn't answer immediately. He picked up his coffee cup and looked out the window at the red earth in the distance.

When he left a year ago, he thought he would never return to this conservative retail empire.

But now, seeing the CEO who had led Walmart for ten years lower his stance, he suddenly felt a complex mix of emotions.

For him, Walmart was clearly a better platform than eBay.

But how much trust and support the other party could give him was what made him hesitate.

"I need to think about it." Robert finally decided to go back and think it over before making a decision.