3 initiatives undertaken by the retail giant

Walmart (WMT) has gained positive sentiment among HSBC analysts, who express confidence in the retail giant’s prospects. The company raised its price target on Walmart shares from $70 to $81 while maintaining a Buy rating. HSBC praises the company’s ability to rethink business strategies that are not delivering the desired results, demonstrating its commitment to improving operational efficiency.

Yahoo Finance’s Brooke DiPalma goes into detail, discussing three key initiatives the company is taking to improve it.

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This post was written by Angel Smith

Video transcription

Hs BC raises price target on Walmart from $70 to $81.

He also maintains this trend by rating stocks that are currently not performing very well.

Down by about half from 1%.

But essentially this note is a reaction to the company’s shareholder meeting that was held last week and among other things, um, basically the analyst is talking about sort of a more agile Walmart expressing a desire to exit businesses that are not in operation, including this health clinic.

It said it would close them all after not working for over five years.

That’s one of the things they pointed to as a potential catalyst.

Yeah, I mean, there were a lot of interesting things.

I mean, there were a lot of positive tones from a lot of analysts on the street in reaction to this meeting.

For example, JP Morgan went overweight and said Walmart was beating Wall Street.

So let’s continue this chat.

But the shopping giant will need the performance of its e-commerce business to maintain its position.

Brooke Dipalma, who recently appeared at Walmart’s annual meeting, is here to discuss how she plans to increase the profitability of her e-commerce business.

Yes, Walmart executives have noted to investors that they believe the e-commerce business could become profitable in the next 1-2 years.

There are three ways, some of the many ways they plan to do this.

We identify three key ways: Walmart needs to catch up when it comes to its AI game.

Amazon was way ahead.

That’s why, earlier this year, Walmart announced plans to use Gen. AI to personalize searches.

For example, you type in birthday party, Walmart will then show you candles, decorations, and cards, and what Walmart executives are really saying here is that this will allow them to give customers what they want, when they want it.

One executive told Yahoo Finance that he believes Wal Mart has the best data on artificial intelligence models, both because of its in-store and online operations.

The story continues

This brings us to our next point: it plans to leverage its physical store locations.

CEO Doug Mcmillan told you who finances that omni is in fact the preferred offering for customers.

They like going to stores, but they also like going online, and e-commerce is a booming business for Walmart, although it hasn’t necessarily come at the expense of in-store purchases.

We saw growth there as well.

Walmart executives tout the fact that approximately 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart location.

That’s more than its goal and more than Costco, and it also said it could offer customers one-hour or three-hour express delivery and charge customers by taking advantage of its presence at that store.

Last chance here guys is a new chance that has been growing lately.

This is their Walmart Connect business.

It’s their advertising business.

We know that in the last quarter, Walmart Connect sales increased by 26%.

So now Walmart is really rolling out sponsored video ads at the top of these results, um, online.

They also use in-store advertising and off-site advertising on Tiktok and Disney Plus. I must say that point two is about the use of physical stores.

That’s why I’ve been listening to this song for a long time.

They’ve been playing for a while.

We will use physical stores.

Uh, they haven’t done that yet.

That’s why curbside pickup is one of the ways that’s really driving e-commerce growth.

And when I asked Doug MC Bill and the general manager there, if you know, they plan on continuing to grow the stores, he actually noted that they plan on increasing the number of store locations that people have moved to.

So they will reassess their real estate strategy and look there.

They certainly want to be close to every American and will they still catch up with Amazon?

Not quite yet?

Yes, they are still quite far from Amazon.

Look.

Last year, Amazon made $47 billion from advertising, Walmart only made $3.4 billion, so there’s still a long way to go.

But experts tell me Walmart needs to work on awareness first.

Not many people know that they have this quick and fast online delivery service.

Not many people know about Walmart plus subscription.

So truly a marketing ad that could be a game changer for Walmart.

However, they may be ahead of Target and Costco when it comes to e-commerce growth.

Yep, Costco certainly didn’t highlight that.

Not at all.

Really?

Thanks so much, Brooke.

I appreciate it.