Building Customer Trust

Welcome to The Quarterly Download, a newsletter that serves up bite-sized insights on the latest innovations from our Walmart Global Tech team.???

Last month we conducted a survey with over 2,200 U.S. shoppers to better understand how customer expectations are evolving as we enter a new era of retail—Adaptive Retail— defined by highly personalized shopping experiences.?

Our findings boiled down to four key trends and one overarching insight: Retailers that can proactively predict individual customer needs, offer personalized suggestions and deliver at exactly the right moment are the ones who will succeed.?

The survey also confirmed what we've been saying all along—price and convenience are still highly valued by shoppers. So much so, that the fundamental values of price, quality and trust are most important to shoppers regardless of whether they are online or in-store. Download our State of Adaptive Retail report to see all four trends .?

Adaptive Retail goes beyond blending the best of online and offline. It tailors experiences based on the deep understanding of the context behind the purchase. Everything must be interconnected to provide these personalized experiences at every touchpoint—from the sophisticated technology to the data and insights layered into every aspect of the business.???

Building Customer Trust Through the Responsible Use of Data and Technology

Adaptive Retail: Responsible data use and technology at Walmart ?

As we introduce new technologies and tailor experiences to meet consumer habits and preferences, it becomes even more important to maintain customers’ trust. We want them to feel confident and comfortable with the ways we use technology.?

Our Digital Citizenship team, led by Nuala O'Connor , ensures we approach data and technology in a way that aligns with Walmart’s values of service, excellence, integrity, and respect for individuals, with the ultimate goal of helping our customers save money and live better.?

They’re behind many of the policies that guide our company in the design, implementation, and security of AI solutions, machine learning, and automated decision-making systems. And help us maintain a privacy-by-design culture where privacy is considered at every stage , from ideation to roll out.??

Additionally, the team partners closely with teams across the business to ensure they are taking the right steps when developing solutions. Numerous factors including privacy, ethical use, security, and data use and management are assessed and determine how we build, deploy and train systems.?

As the Global Technology Platform team built our AI/ML platform Element , they collaborated with Digital Citizenship to ensure that the principles of data governance and responsible AI were integrated. This ensures the safety, security, privacy, data sovereignty transparency, and regulatory compliance of the platform. It also helps developers detect any drift so we don’t have unnecessary biases introduced.?

Thank you for taking the time to read this edition of The Quarterly Download! We hope you found it informative and insightful. While our newsletter arrives every quarter, you can still stay up to date with the latest happenings by following our blog and our LinkedIn page . Until next time!?