translated from Spanish: Walmart to invest US$700 million in Chile with a focus on digital transformation

The Walmart company delivered an update of its investment plan for Chile at the Supplier Summit. The company’s CEO, Horacio Barbeito, reported that it will be US$700 million that will go to the local operation for the next three years, including 50 new stores, 150 Pickups stations and 60 remodeling or transformations of stores.
In addition, it will allocate US$100 million to the technology, to fulfill the digital transformation project and the concentration of omnichannel that Walmart seeks to position in its 381 stores in the country through the flow of goods and boxes.
“The price of technology has dropped a lot, so for us US $100 million is a very important investment. It’s very much in line with what we want to do, which is to move faster,” said the firm’s CEO.
The plan also focuses on 60 renovations and the opening of 50 new premises, adding 150 locations to the pick-up system (online purchase and in-store pickup).
Regarding this, Barbeito argued that “home delivery is the biggest challenge in retail, what is known as the last mile.”
In this sense, the firm’s executive highlighted the distribution of premises by getting 47% of customers within an hour of their nearest store.
“This gives us an advantage for pick up, which is our fastest growing channel, where the customer paying store prices can shop online, choosing the schedules to move to their nearest store and lift the product, without friction,” he said.

Original source in Spanish