Matt Alexander of Walmart on Transforming the Retail Experience

A Voice of the Customer Interview with Jeff Dossett

Matt Alexander, Walmart’s senior director for merchandise transformation, joined me at Connect 2022, Impinj’s annual partner event, for a fireside chat about the evaluation and implementation of transformational technologies and how connected items can change businesses. Matt has an impressive twenty-year career at Walmart spanning store operations, supply chain, product management, and merchandising. In January 2022, Walmart expanded RFID tagging to items in home goods, sporting goods, electronics, and toys. They are excited by the results and the opportunity to better serve customers in the future. As Matt and I discussed the changing retail industry, we agreed that providing delightful customer experiences and improving operational efficiency is only possible with the intentional adoption of transformational technology like RAIN RFID. 

Create a Customer-Centric Strategy

Retailers must build technology foundations and tools to respond to changing customer behaviors and increased expectations around how they shop in stores and online. Today, the goal is to enable the customer to shop how and when they want—and with confidence in product availability. Walmart uses RAIN RFID as the “eyes and ears” of the inventory process and receives accurate, real-time data including where items are, where they came from, and how many there are.

Engage Retail Associates

I was particularly excited to learn that Walmart has worked to gamify associate processes for measuring inventory and restocking items which has increased efficiency for associates. Matt shared how Walmart creatively incorporated audio and visual notifications on store handheld readers that encourage and celebrate a store associate upon each completed task. For example, an associate scanning connected items within a particular department may receive a blue response on their reader that reflects real-time feedback that there should be more items scanned in an area. Alternatively, when an associate has scanned the expected amount of items, the scanner will turn green and emit a sound to congratulate them on a completed task. As Matt told this story, I was energized thinking about how gamification can inspire more positive retail associate experiences while simultaneously limiting the need for hands-on supervision. 

Support Seamless Integration and Sustainability

Matt acknowledged two areas of growth that he believes are instrumental for ongoing adoption of RAIN RFID as a transformational IoT technology. One, in particular, is a call for tag and inlay providers to evolve from a “one size fits all” mentality for RAIN RFID tags to create better-performing and smaller tags quickly. Matt believes RAIN RFID tags need to evolve to ensure products of every type and size have tags that are compact, proportionally-sized to the product, and seamlessly integrate with packaging design. Additionally, evolving the tagging solution must support Walmart’s commitment to sustainability by ensuring that the RAIN RFID enabled sticker on a product or package maintains or improves a product’s recyclability.

“Sustainability should no longer be considered an option. It should be something that we all are already doing." - Matt Alexander, Senior Director for Merchandise Transformation, Walmart

I deeply valued my time with Matt and continue to reflect on the insights he shared. I look forward to accelerating how Impinj and our partners collaborate for a more efficient and sustainable future.