沃尔玛的增长新思维：吸引富裕消费者

刘颖

  Wal-Mart Stores WMT -10.09% shocked Wall Street on Wednesday with a warning that revenue won’t grow this fiscal year, contrary to prior forecasts. Worse, the retail giant also told investors to brace for a sharp drop in profits next year, thanks to big investments in its e-commerce and higher salaries for its workers.
    The investments are critical to a strategy that seems paradoxical for a retailer that is largely associated with lower-income shoppers: Wal-Mart is going up market with some of its assortment and store presentation in a bid to win more business from the middle and upper middle class.
    At the company’s annual investor meeting, CEO Doug McMillon said that in markets where Wal-Mart’s different divisions (including Sam’s Club) operate stores, middle-class households were expected to generate about half the growth in overall retail sales, making them essential to its plans.
    “Globally we know that growth will disproportionately come from middle- and upper-middle income households in the years ahead,” McMillon said.
    Asked whether Wal-Mart’s efforts were specifically aimed at getting higher-income consumers on board, McMillon said: “That will be the outcome.” He added: “The nature of e-commerce, the nature of the Neighborhood Markets (smaller grocery stores) and other things we’re doing do create an opportunity for us to be even more relevant to customers that are at the higher end of the scale.”
    While McMillion was quick to point out that Wal-Mart would continue to focus on what it calls “opening price points” for its lowest-income consumers, he challenged the perception that Walmart (as its chain of stores is known) customers skew to the lower end of the income spectrum, saying its clientele largely mirrors U.S. society.

刘颖

It’s just a question of getting more out of the customers on the righthand side of chart that Wal-Mart showed investors on Wednesday, all the more since wages for lower-income Americans are stagnating.
    (One caveat: Walmart may mirror U.S. society, but its customers are nonetheless on average less affluent than those of Target TGT -3.50% : according to 2014 Kantar Retail data, the average Walmart shopper had a household income of $53,125, about $12,000 less than her counterpart at Target.)
    The cornerstone of Walmart’s efforts in the U.S. has been a better grocery offering at both its big boxes and Neighborhood Market stores, more organic food, more e-commerce (Walmart is currently testing a service similar to Amazon.com’s AMZN -0.74% Prime free-delivery service, among other efforts) and cleaner stores. And there are some green shoots: Walmart’s internal research found customer service scores have improved dramatically since February.
    But on the grocery side, these efforts come as Walmart, the largest U.S. grocer with annual sales of about $160 billion, faces similar efforts from archival Target and everyone from Safeway to Albertson’s (which this week is expected to be listed on the stock market again) to Kroger KR -2.96% is upgrading its offerings, particularly organic food, as they eye the same, more-affluent customer Walmart covets. In addition, Walmart could face pressure from Whole Foods Market’s WFM -0.96% upcoming lower end 365 chain.
    By some estimates, the company’s U.S. division gets nearly 20% of its sales from people who rely on food stamps, but Walmart also appeals to a sizable middle-class clientele among the tens of million of Americans who shop there once a week. (Globally, 260 million people shop at its stores every week, though Wal-Mart does not break that out by market.)
    Among other efforts designed at least in part to woo the more affluent, Walmart is investing a fortune in its e-commerce ($2 billion in the next two years alone), offering free pick-up service at some stores for grocery orders placed on line, and giving workers raises to ultimately make stores more appealing, improve customer service and address its long-standing out-of-stock problems; all moves aimed at winning over shoppers with more money to spend.
    Wal-Mart shares fell 10% on Wednesday, losing more than $20 billion of its stock market value. (Investors didn’t seem to be assuaged by Wal-Mart’s projection that annual sales could rise as much as $60 billion by fiscal 2019.)

刘颖

沃尔玛公司上周三发布预测称，本财年的营收不会增长。这条与此前预期相反的消息震惊了华尔街。更糟糕的是，沃尔玛已经告诫投资者，由于公司将向电商业务进行大规模投资，并提高员工薪酬，明年的营业利润或将大幅下跌。

    沃尔玛正在实施一项通过改变商品搭配和店面陈列来吸引更多中高阶层消费者的战略。上述投资计划正是该战略的重要组成部分，尽管这项战略似乎有悖于沃尔玛的传统定位——它毕竟是一家主要依赖低收入消费者的连锁超市。

    在沃尔玛的年度投资者会议上，CEO董明伦表示，在沃尔玛各部门（包括山姆会员店）开设店面的市场上，总零售额的增长预计将有大约一半来自中产阶级家庭，中产阶级由此成为沃尔玛重振战略的重中之重。

    董明伦指出：“从全球范围看，我们知道，未来几年的增长将有相当大的比例来自中高收入家庭。”

    当被问到沃尔玛的措施是否专门针对高收入消费者时，董明伦表示：“那将是结果。”他补充道：“电子商务、社区市场（即小型便利店）和我们正在做的其它事情的本质，都是为我们创造一个更贴近高端消费者的机会。”

    董明伦随后指出，沃尔玛将继续专注于为最低收入消费者提供所谓的“底价”，但他并不接受沃尔玛的消费群主要集中在低收入群体这一观点。他说，沃尔玛的消费群体比例很大程度上反映了真实的美国社会。

刘颖

正如沃尔玛上周三向投资者展示的这个图表所示，该公司的战略就是要让图中右侧的消费者掏更多的钱消费，特别是随着美国低收入阶层的工资增长陷入停滞，这一需求对沃尔玛显得更为迫切。

    （需要提醒的是，沃尔玛的客户群或许反映了美国社会的阶层比例，但其消费者的平均富裕程度还是比不上塔吉特百货。坎塔尔零售公司2014年发布的数据显示，沃尔玛消费者的家庭平均年收入为53,125美元，大约比塔吉特百货低12,000美元。）

    在美国市场，作为这项重振战略的基石，沃尔玛一直致力于为旗下的大型超市和社区门店提供更好的杂货商品、更多的有机食品、更多的电子商务（沃尔玛正在测试一项类似亚马逊Prime的免费快递服务），以及更干净的门店。这些努力已经初见成效。沃尔玛的内部调查发现，自今年2月份以来，顾客服务满意度分数已经有了显著提高。

    不过在食品杂货方面，作为美国最大杂货店，年销售额达1600亿美元的沃尔玛虽然频频出招，但塔吉特、喜互惠、有望本周复牌的艾伯森，以及克罗格等竞争对手也都在升级自己的产品和服务，特别是在有机食品方面，因为像沃尔玛一样，这些零售商也瞄准了更为富裕的中高阶层消费者。此外，沃尔玛还面临着来自全食公司即将推出的低端品牌365连锁超市的压力。

    根据预测，在美国市场，沃尔玛近20%的销售额来自那些持有食物券的穷人（译注：美国政府为符合规定的低收入人群发放食物券，可在当地的餐厅和超市使用）。不过，也有数千万美国人每周至少去沃尔玛采购一次，其中有相当一部人是中产阶层。（从全球范围看，每周有2.6亿人在沃尔玛购物，但沃尔玛并未按国家细分这项数据。）

    为吸引富裕阶层，沃尔玛还斥巨资投资电商业务（单单是未来2年，沃尔玛就将投入20亿美元），一些门店将为网上下单的消费者提供免费运送服务。另外，沃尔玛还计划为工人加薪，以提高门店的吸引力，并改善顾客服务水平。同时，沃尔玛也在花力气改善它的“老毛病”——缺货问题。所有这些举措都是为了吸引那些更富裕的消费者来沃尔玛购物。

    上周三，沃尔玛的股价下跌10%，市值蒸发超过200亿美元。（虽然据沃尔玛预测，到2019财年，其年销售额可能比现在增长600亿美元，但这似乎并没能让投资者感到宽心。）