Walmart

The seminal digital event that occurred in the year 2007 was the introduction of the first iPhone, but there was another noteworthy development that year involving Walmart e-commerce.

A few months after the iPhone made headlines, Walmart rolled out its buy online, pick up in store service branded as Site to Store and helped give meaning to the word omnichannel. In digital terms, 2007 was eons ago.

Amazon is upping the ante in the fulfillment wars by expanding its same-day delivery service for Prime members to more markets and making it free.

The company added two new markets, San Diego and Tampa Bay, to its list of same-day delivery areas while also reducing the price to free for orders over $35. The company already offers same-day delivery in several regions, including New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Boston, Baltimore, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Washington, D.C.

We live in interesting times when it comes to all the ways we can pay and complete purchases, times when you can now order food for delivery without ever leaving your search engine. More convenient and secure ways of making payments are advancing on a number of interesting fronts, including computer chip enabled EMV credit and debit cards that are soon to replace magnetic stripe cards in the United States, and mobile phone-based digital wallets like Apple Pay and CurrentC (not to mention the digital currency bitcoin, which admittedly we’re pulling for).

The Walmart shareholders meeting is next week and while the event is great for the retailer’s associates, suppliers looking for deeper insight into new priorities and key initiatives will be better served by attending a more content rich event the following week.

That’s when the Center for Retailing Excellence in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas plans to hold its annual Emerging Trends in Retail conference. The event, scheduled for Thursday, June 11, is especially noteworthy for several reasons this year.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Walmart and the attorney for comedian/actor Tracy Morgan have reached a settlement agreement, ending a civil lawsuit related to a crash on the New Jersey Turnpike last June. The terms and conditions of the settlement with Morgan and the other plaintiffs remain confidential.

Walmart and the attorney for comedian Tracy Morgan reached a confidential settlement agreement of a lawsuit stemming from an accident involving a Walmart truck and the vehicle in which Morgan was riding.

Walmart and Benedict P. Morelli, attorney for Tracy Morgan, Ardley Fuqua, and Jeffrey Millea reached a settlement agreement ending the lawsuit against Walmart that arose from a multi-vehicle accident involving the men on June 7, 2014, on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Former Walmart Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer Duncan Mac Naughton has joined the board of directors of CROSSMARK, a sales, marketing and merchandising services company focused on the retail and consumer goods industries.

CROSSMARK CEO Steve Schuckenbrock in an internal company announcement said it is a privilege to have Mac Naughton join the company’s board given his extraordinary retail industry experience and leadership from both a manufacturer and retailer perspective.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Walmart announced the next step in its Veterans Welcome Home Commitment by guaranteeing a job offer to any eligible U.S. veteran honorably discharged from active duty since the commitment’s original launch on Memorial Day 2013.

The previous commitment was for veterans within 12 months off active duty. In addition to the Veterans Welcome Home Commitment, Walmart is expanding its 2013 projection of hiring 100,000 veterans by 2018, increasing the projection to 250,000 veterans by the end of 2020.

Walmart is more than doubling the number of veterans it plans to hire by the year 2020.

Lawrenceville, N.J.  – A new GS1 US standard offers a common approach for listing and classifying products across all e-commerce platforms. Developed in collaboration with 18 companies, including Best Buy, Bing, CNET, eBay, Google, and Wal-Mart, the GS1 US Simple Product Listing helps ensure that products are accurately represented across all sales channels and are more easily discoverable by search engines and consumers.