Walmart has currently chosen to go digital before the big holiday shopping surge begins. Walmart, known for a strong supply-chain management, could potentially create more efficient inventory management and increase product selling capability regardless of distribution channels. In class, we classified supply chain management as the role of operations in a supply chain is: get the right product to the right place at the right time in the right amounts.
I believe this is an incredibly smart investment as competitive markets transition more into digital mobility. The most significant gain from this decision is that it makes their chain of distribution more efficient and inter-connected. This application helps their market research on consumer behavior and thus makes their forecasts more accurate. Furthermore, it even helps cut inventory costs due to less uncertainty and better use of Just In Time distribution. Walmart realized they had “140 million weekly shoppers in the US. That is Internet scale to the offline world” and found the market opportunity to use technology to their advantage (Sloan, CNet). This application helps consumers get what they want, while helping management quantize correctly to maximize profits, which defines effective supply chain operations and management according to our Comm 101 class.
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57548785-94/how-walmart-is-going-all-out-with-mobile/