Walmart’s omni-channel dilemma

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The world’s largest retailer has probably the world’s most ambitious supply chain IT investment programme under way. “We want to know what every product in the world is. We want to know who every person in the world is. And we want to have the ability to connect them together in a transaction,” said its global head of e-commerce recently of the global technology platform currently under construction. But one thing could hold it back from developing a truly omni-channel retail offering – stock levels in its stores, so crucial to the click and collect channel, are failing to be replenished due, mainly, to a lack of operations personnel between stores and warehouses.