Stratechery: An Interview with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon About Omnichannel Retail
April 30, 2024 | 1 min to read
This week’s Stratechery Interview features Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, who reflects on his journey from a warehouse employee to the head of the world’s largest retailer. Under his leadership, Walmart has evolved into a major e-commerce competitor, surpassing $100 billion in global sales. The interview delves into Walmart's strategy of becoming an omnichannel retailer, emphasizing skill development, the impact of COVID, groceries, and a customer-centric approach as keys to success.
This week’s Stratechery Interview is with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon. McMillon started working in a Walmart warehouse in high school, and is today the CEO of the largest retailer in the world, and — pertinently to Stratechery — one of the largest and fastest-growing e-commerce businesses: last year Walmart passed $100 billion in global e-commerce sales.
In this interview we discuss McMillon’s career at Walmart, and Walmart’s winding road to competing in e-commerce. The company is increasingly where it always wanted to be — an omnichannel retailer leveraging its stores to differentiate its e-commerce offering — and I was particularly interested in how the company had to learn to develop new skills before it could put all of the puzzle pieces together. We explore that in this interview, along with things like groceries, COVID, and advertising, and why Walmart can win by putting the customer first.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Stratechery