Wal-Mart's Second E-Commerce Operation Launched In Silicon Valley

Wal-Mart is spreading its’ wings all around the globe and there is no other retailer like it. The company is moving at a fast pace relative to its’ advancement in e-commerce. This aspect of business is becoming so vital for companies, that investment into this area commands technological experts to make it successful. Wal-Mart understands that the key to landing these tech engineers is to open up an e-commerce operation right where they are—Silicon Valley.

This is exactly what the retail giant did, and they now have a second office in Silicon Valley reported Internet Retailer. The new location is about 30 miles away from their San Bruno location. So far, Wal-Mart has almost 500 employees at this office, with plans to expand to 1,000. This is a huge staff undertaking, which shows it’s confidence level in the area. Their San Bruno location has 1,500 employees as well.

In the article, a Wal-Mart spokesman explained the logic behind building the new facility. The spokesman stated, “We chose Sunnyvale to take advantage of the talent density in the South Bay. San Francisco and the peninsula tend to offer design, app and [user interface] talent, and though there’s plenty of tech talent there, the South Bay has a higher concentration of engineers and technologists. We’re expanding to South Bay to geographically target this different skill set.”

The spokesman also shared some reasons why Wal-Mart can compete against the best of them in the area in regards to acquiring new talent in the area. “Competition for tech talent here is fierce, but we're able to attract and retain talent because of our nimble, startup like culture, and the opportunity for technologists to innovate at a global scale only Wal-Mart can offer, we had a 94% acceptance rate for our job offers.” Wal-Mart isn’t going anywhere and tech experts are comfortable with Wal-Mart’s business direction.

That is indeed correct regarding the global reach that Wal-Mart has, especially with its’ own physical locations, which competitors like Amazon and eBay don’t have. This means a broader growth path for many technologists. The retail giant even has an e-retail partner Yihaodian in China that is has a 51% stake in and has helped it thrive there. With Wal-Mart’s expertise and logistical infrastructure, Yihaodian e-web sales spiked upward last year to $2 billion, growing at a rate of 70% in 2013, all because of Wal-Mart’s aggressive move within the world of e-commerce.

Wal-Mart is growing in the US as well, being very innovative with its’ implementation of same-day delivery in major cities. Same-day grocery service has also been launched relative to e-commerce, with its’ recent strategic roll-out in Denver. Select stores in the city are offering “Walmart To Go”, where customers have the option to order their groceries online and then go pick up their order. Wal-Mart’s main e-commerce competitor is Amazon, which also is global and offers AmazonFresh in the US, its’ version of same-day grocery service. A same-day courier like A-1 Express can help large both corporations like these make there deliveries fast and without having to gain any courier expertise themselves.

Reference: 2.7.14, Internet Retailer, Thad Rueter, Wal-Mart opens a second e-commerce office in Silicon Valley