Offered without comment, here are two recent quotes about Walmart’s approach to digital innovation:
“We are uniquely positioned to give customers anytime, anywhere access to Walmart by combining the smartphone, online, and the physical stores. Ultimately, that will give us an edge over any competitor.
…We’ve hired hundreds of incredibly talented people, in Silicon Valley and around the world. We are playing to win.”
-Walmart CEO Mike Duke, in a Fast Company story on WalmartLabs and the company’s online and mobile efforts.
“At Walmart, the mission is to ‘save people money so they can live better.’ If a new search engine could better surface the best deals for customers, let’s do it. If a new mobile app meant parents could get home-delivery of weekly groceries, saving them a couple of hours dragging two toddlers around a supermarket, then let’s do it. The mission statement wasn’t ‘let’s build some cool shit and throw it at the wall to see what sticks.'”
-Tobias Peggs, founder of OneRiot who just left Walmart a year after the retailer acquired his company. Read his blog post.