Walmart and Amazon in a high-tech battle

Amazon’s lead engineer had a dog named Rufus who ran through the halls looking for tennis balls. This doesn’t seem like much for a multibillion-dollar company. But recently, Amazon brought Rufus back to the workplace in a big way as the call from its AI-powered virtual grocery shopping assistant, with the dog symbol as the mascot. Meanwhile, Walmart has introduced its own AI-powered virtual grocery shopping assistant as the two stores continue a fight with gigantic risks. These high-tech assistants provide all kinds of information, answer questions, and make recommendations (read “sales suggestions”).

In a high-tech, high-stakes food battle, Seattle-based Amazon and Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart are stepping up their technology, deploying AI, their knowledge as a massive resource, further automating the supply chain , they are launching technologies to build increase convenience, reduce costs, reduce stock and give everyone a competitive advantage.

The result is a futuristic clash between corporations and computers, in which supermarket owners revolutionize retail in super-smart retail establishments and far beyond, as software becomes a more important element in promoting their products.

These dueling giants continue to grow as supermarkets, adding up in terms of market share, as they continue to invest in technology. Amazon’s second-quarter sales ended June 30 at $148. 67 billion, up 10% from $134. 4 billion. Its store sales rose 5% to $55. 4 billion after a 7% expansion in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, Walmart’s first-quarter sales were $161. 5 billion, up 6. 0%. Walmart has expanded e-commerce and in-store sales, helping consumers locate “what they’re looking for when they buy our app or site,” Walmart’s president said. and CEO C. Douglas McMillon. La e-commerce penetration is increasing in all our markets. “

In other words, the biggest fish are getting bigger even as the line between e-commerce and in-store sales blurs. While expansion would likely come with development issues, generation is driving, or at least facilitating, much of this expansion as supermarkets expand at a remarkable pace. Once a sleepy sector when it came to generation, ‘super’ supermarkets are now at the forefront of how generation can have an effect on the retail experience, if only because of their size, variety and speed of delivery. delivery.

AI in the hallway

Walmart and Amazon are leading a revolution in retail by employing AI-powered virtual grocery shopping assistants to upsell and personalize the visitor experience.

AI is at the center of this “2. 0” retail revolution, as Walmart and Amazon use its knowledge to present products and stimulate sales. Digital grocery shopping assistants can increase sales and help consumers locate what they need faster, even if they didn’t know they were looking for it. In reality, suggest is just another word for selling, as AI sales assistants are the most productive friends of the retailer and the buyer.

“These advancements bring about a new era in online grocery shopping, transforming the way consumers interact with retailers,” said Jack Lindberg of Walmart’s Mars United Commerce and Amazon’s use of artificial intelligence to create virtual grocery shopping assistants.

Walmart CEO McMillon said they are “bringing new reports to life, like AI-powered generative product searches that our consumers shop for more intuitively. ” Walmart’s AI can supply products that fit activities like “Help me plan a football night” or “What materials?” What do I want for a newborn?”

Google could lead the search, but Amazon and Walmart are looking to compete in retail. “We can perceive our customers’ desires in an even deeper point and generate personalized responses and product suggestions,” according to Walmart. “That’s where the magic lies. “

Meanwhile, Rufus, Amazon’s “AI-powered conversational grocery shopping assistant,” helped millions of consumers sort through huge stockpiles for the biggest Prime Day in Amazon history. Think of it as a kind of automatic or synthetic dealer (AS) that we will help you locate and purchase. faster with AI.

In the store

While AI is helping to expand e-commerce, Amazon and Walmart are also making big adjustments to retail outlets, especially when it comes to generation. Amazon has pulled Just Walk Out, a “fast and frictionless” generation from major grocery retail outlets and taken a new approach. Amazon Fresh, on the other hand, uses Amazon’s Dash Cart generation that allows shoppers to scan parts while shopping for groceries and paying over the phone, eliminating the need to pay.

Walmart and Amazon are leading a revolution in retail by employing AI-powered virtual shopping assistants to upsell and personalize the visitor experience.

However, generation is only part of what Amazon has in store. Whole Foods is launching Whole Foods Market Daily Shop, a fast-casual store format ranging from 7,000 to 14,000 square feet, up to the typical 40,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market.

Walmart has been looking at the grocery shopping experience, transforming roughly 70 retail outlets in the last quarter and is on track to do so by more than 900 this year, according to McMillon. However, expansion also means cutting back on things that don’t work. Walmart recently made the decision to close its fitness clinics in the United States, which reduced reimbursement rates and charging for services.

“We no longer see a way to reach an appropriate point of profitability and are committed to being disciplined in our investments,” Walmart said.

Delivering results

Walmart and Amazon specialize in delivering effects and products quickly. Both convenience and cost. “We’re trying to save our consumers time and money,” McMillon said. “We are led by people and supported through technology. “

This may seem like an undeniable statement, but focusing on saving time and money is essential. Issues of convenience as well as costs. This struggle to save time and money is a hallmark of the smart food shopping revolution, as stores compete for convenience. Amazon’s flexible shipping with Prime has been a key differentiator. But Walmart is ramping up in-store delivery and pickup, recently introducing early-morning on-demand delivery to customers’ doorsteps starting at 7 a. m. in just 30 minutes. Walmart’s same-day delivery will be available at more than 6,500 locations worldwide.

“At Walmart U. S. , in the last 12 months, 4. 4 billion pieces were delivered the same day or the next day, and about 20% were delivered in less than 3 hours,” McMillon said recently. “Delivery times are getting faster and deliveries prices are coming down at the same time. “

Logistics

Amazon and Walmart are investing heavily in complex logistics and supply chain automation to achieve power and capacity.

Amazon and Walmart are also investing in advanced logistics. McMillon said Walmart is working to “create a smarter, more flexible and automated supply chain” for its 4,600 grocery stores.

Walmart is building five new high-tech consistent grocery distribution centers and expanding four classic consistent grocery centers by adding 500,000 square feet of location-based automation to develop new production capacity. “We are adding cutting-edge technology to our services to enable greater speed and greater capacity that will allow us to serve our consumers even more reliably,” said Dave Guggina, executive vice president of the service chain. source at Walmart US

Walmart’s high-tech centers can purchase and process twice as many records as traditional centers, more than double the amount processed per hour. Automated systems gather intelligently stacked pallets with more fragile items, such as eggs or fruit, facing up.

Meanwhile, Amazon has such delivery capacity that it makes deliveries for other stores, adding supermarket chains such as Save Mart-owned Lucky Supermarkets. “We’re partnering with third-party stores that our consumers already love,” said Carol Rogalski, spokeswoman. for Amazon, he told Grocery Dive.

Hallway advertising

Although sales have increased at Amazon and Walmart, both corporations also use their outlets to generate profits from advertisers and not just sales.

Amazon and Walmart take advantage of their physical points of sale to generate advertising revenue.

Walmart recently unveiled its Sam’s Club Member Access Platform, or MAP, which it claims makes it the “first retail media platform to integrate classified ads into a self-service checkout mobile app experience. “

“This launch represents a new step in Retail Media 2. 0…Combining…physical and virtual experiences,” Andrew Lipsman, founder and chief media analyst at Ads Commerce.

The adoption of Sam’s Scan

Walmart also gains insights “to better understand members’ purchasing habits and ad performance,” while helping “advertisers achieve their goals. ” Department retailers are gaining so much knowledge that they must now increase sales.

Boosting label

Inflation has raised values ​​everywhere, prompting Walmart and Amazon to react, engaging in a competitive stock race. The one thing that doesn’t go unnoticed at Walmart and Amazon turns out to be value. Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky recently said consumers are “hunting for deals” on less expensive and better-selling products.

“We have increased the number of promotions for our customers. . . ” Jason Buechel, CEO of Whole Foods, told Yahoo! Finance. “As a result, we saw double-digit expansion in promotional items units. “

Deals and discounts proliferate on Amazon, and Walmart keeps costs low thanks to its low-pricing strategy. At the same time, Walmart and Amazon are strengthening personal labels.

Whole Foods is expanding its personal brands to offer more features and combat inflation. The 365 personal brand at Whole Foods already offers more than 3000 products, with more on the way.

Meanwhile, Walmart recently introduced a new personal label food logo called Bettergoods, which McMillon called “the largest personal food label in 20 years. ” He said 70% of premium pieces cost less than $5. Bettergoods proves the world’s largest logo Stores rarely think big and small at the same time. Amazon and Walmart are growing, whether in stores or online. Of course, they need you to know where to shop. But ask Walmart and Amazon; They will probably tell you that they need your decision to be shopping online or in person, not where.

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