"Wal-Mart’s top merchandisers share insights" by Kim Souza at The City Wire.  "In a rare panel discussion held Thursday (May 16), four senior management merchandisers for Walmart U.S. spoke candidly about the importance of communication in the busiest company on the planet...Buchanan added that for his team, localization means figuring out what the customers want making sure it’s on the shelf. Gloeckler said Walmart.com is a great testing ground for small to medium size suppliers for home products. She said the supply chain is easier to maneuver with online offerings.  “The top sales item of Walmart.com each week will [...]

  "Walmart Disappoints But Stays Course on Price Ads and Ecommerce" by Jack Neff at Ad Age.  "But executives pointed to things they said are producing positive results, including aggressive pricing, particularly on groceries, backed by local market-basket price-comparison ads on TV and radio that U.S. CEO Bill Simon said will now expand to 70% of Walmart's markets, up from the current 60%...Its e-commerce sales rose more than 30% last quarter, ahead of rival Amazon's 22% growth, which disappointed analysts."  Read more:  https://adage.com/article/news/walmart-disappoints-stays-price-ads-ecommerce/241520/   "Walmart Canada customer traffic declined amid Target entry" by Hollie Shaw at Financial Post.  "Even Walmart [...]

  Walmart Q1 Earnings Released this Morning:   How Walmart Sees it:  "Walmart reports a 4.6 percent increase for Q1 EPS of $1.14; U.S. businesses forecast positive comp sales for Q2."  from Walmart Press Release.  "Walmart U.S. comp sales declined 1.4 percent in the 13-week period from Jan. 26 to Apr. 26, 2013. Comp sales performance was impacted by a delay in income tax refund checks, challenging weather conditions, less grocery inflation than expected and the payroll tax increase. Walmart U.S. gained market share in the measured category of "food, consumables and health & wellness/OTC."  Read full release:  https://news.walmart.com/news-archive/investors/walmart-reports-a-46-percent-increase-for-q1-eps-of-114-us-businesses-forecast-positive-comp-sales-for-q2-1820850   [...]

  "Two More Deals in Wal-Mart’s Dotcom Acquisition Spree" by Shelly Banjo at WSJ.  "Tuesday’s acquisitions include Tasty Labs, a software application development company started by former Google and Mozilla employees and was backed by venture capital giants Andreessen Horowitz and Union Square ventures, as well as OneOps, a cloud computing company started by a group of eBay veterans."  Read more:  https://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2013/05/14/two-more-deals-in-wal-marts-dotcom-acquisition-spree/   "aisle441 Signs Deal with Home Depot to "Map" its 2,000 Stores" by Amir Kurtovic at St. Louis Business Journal.  "Aisle411 announced Tuesday that its indoor retail navigation service is now available in more than 12,000 stores nationwide. [...]

  "Walmart Q1 Earnings Preview" at Trefis.  "Wal-Mart will release its Q1 fiscal 2014 results on May 16. Although the retailer performed steadily throughout fiscal 2013, we expect it to report relatively slow growth during this quarter. Higher payroll taxes and delays in tax refunds will be some of the key factors governing the retailer’s results in the U.S. Additionally, Wal-Mart’s expansion in international markets such as Brazil, Mexico and China is likely to weigh on its overall revenue growth. Since the company took this step to improve its store profitability, we expect the comparable store sales growth to improve." [...]

  "Week Ahead: Retail Earnings and Lots of Data" by Dunstan Prial at Fox Business.  "Bellwether retailers scheduled to release their quarterly earnings reports include Macy’s (M), Kohl’s (KSS), Nordstrom (JWN), J.C. Penney (JCP) and the biggest of all, Wal-Mart (WMT).  Analysts say retailers on the whole likely suffered a bit last quarter due to uncommonly cold weather in much of the U.S. Numbers may be weaker than in previous quarters."  Read more: https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/2013/05/10/week-ahead-retail-earnings-and-lots-data/#ixzz2TAfh372a   "Elton John To Highlight Walmart Shareholders Event" by Shain Bergan at 5 News Online.  "Music icon Elton John is set to perform at Walmart’s shareholders [...]

  "Home Depot's CMO Trish Mueller Discusses Mobile Initiatives" by Mark Walsh at Media Post.  "In the social realm, Mueller was bullish on Twitter, calling the microblogging service “a new horizon in terms of information and connectivity for consumers, more so than other social platforms.” Home Depot has recently tested pushing tweets to mobile users based on relevant Twitter conversations, even if they are not marked with a hashtag.  That might involve sending a tweet about paint products if someone tweeted about having to paint their kitchen. Mueller said engagement has been 40% higher with such tweets in mobile than [...]

    "Pinterest Pins Its Hopes On International Growth, Starts Out With Localizing ‘Pin It Forward’ Campaign To Drive More U.K. Posts" by Natasha Lomas at Techcrunch.  "Pinterest is ramping up its international strategy by kicking off a localisation effort in the U.K. today, tweaking the site so that it deliberately foregrounds U.K. content to U.K. users and also adding a British English language setting to make Brits feel more at home."  Read more:  https://techcrunch.com/2013/05/09/pinterest-pin-it-forward/   "Next Wal-Mart CEO Faces Challenges Sam Walton Never Saw" at Bloomberg.  "Doug McMillon, who has been at Wal-Mart since starting as a summer worker in [...]