Spoiler alert: Mix bricks with clicks
Walmart's recent earnings report revealed that the company's total revenue had increased by 9% year-on-year, making it the highest increase in nearly two decades. This increase is despite $900 million in COVID-19 spending.
What lessons can credit unions take away from this success?
1. Contain expenses
The cost of sales rose about 10% year on year and is roughly in line with revenues.
2. Leadership that embraces a growth mindset
Increase what is working. Walmart offers a ship from store service. Before the pandemic, it was available in about 100 of the 5,000 stores. They quickly expanded that to 2,500 stores.
3. Create new solutions
They piloted a two-hour delivery service at 100 stores in April and had already expanded it to 1,000 stores, with plans to double that.
4. Identify competitive advantage
Amazon, clearly the online behemoth, has struggled to gain a secure foothold in grocery delivery. Their purchase of Whole Foods, a higher-end grocery store chain, provided 500 stores, and their cheaper Amazon Fresh option could not keep up with demand. Walmart, with its "everyday low prices" capitalized on this advantage and saw the number of people placing online orders increased four times this quarter over that from the same time a year ago.
5. Leverage data
Walmart's spend to build a first-rate BI and data infrastructure paid off in the pandemic. It provided insights into how to keep expenses in moderation and, very precisely, spend for maximum benefit.
Five actions that credit unions can take today
1.Contain expenses
Clearly easier said than done.
2. Increase what is working
Now that members are using online channels, offering more through those channels and re-thinking the branch's use.
3. Create new solutions
Members have two simple needs, 1 ) how to maximize their cash flow and 2) how to safely engage in this new world.
4. Identify competitive advantage
What are credit unions doing better/different than the competition? The obvious answer is knowing the member like family and helping them in ways that only credit unions do - fundraisers, charity drives, and the best financial partner.
5. Leverage data
Now is a great time to leverage all that robust data credit unions have. Here are the last five blogs that offer several ways to leverage data.
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