During a fireside chat at Tuesday’s Bank of America 2016 Consumer & Retail Conference, Walmart EVP/CFO Brett Biggs spoke about the company’s customer engagement momentum seen through its fiscal fourth-quarter results. For Biggs, momentum was the key word.
“So if you look at Walmart U.S., six straight quarters of positive comps, five straight quarters of positive traffic,” Biggs said, according to Seeking Alpha. “So the wage investments that we put in last year and this year, we are seeing great improvement in our clean, fast, friendly scores and our customers noticed what we’ve done with the stores and I was in Indianapolis for our year beginning meeting a few weeks ago and when you are with our associates, you can feel the momentum with them.”
What’s more, Biggs noted momentum in membership from Sam’s Club.
“I’ve spent three years in Sam’s Club,” Biggs said. “It’s all about membership and merchandising. You were seeing good membership numbers from Sam’s Club in the fourth quarter, which is a leading good indicator for that business. Really good improvement in our plus memberships, which are some of our most loyal members. So, I think good momentum there as well.”
That focus on taking care of customers today and how the company serves them in the future is a critical mission for Walmart, Biggs said.
“I think one of the things that really differentiates us is our ability to transform the company from a position of great financial strengths,” he explained. “So if you look at what we talked about at the end of the fourth quarter, last year, we had our $27 billion in operating cash flow. We raised dividend for the 43rd consecutive year.”
Biggs said Walmart returned more than $10 billion to its shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchase.
“So while we are transforming the company, we can do that from a position of great strength,” he said. “If you’d looked at our fourth quarter and full year earnings release, you’ll continue to see good momentum in the parts of our business.”
Ecommerce experienced 13% GMV growth last year.
“Rolling out our Walmart Pay and what we’ve done so far with Walmart Pay is a great example of what we can do as a company to bring various parts of our company together in something that will be great with our customers,” Biggs noted. “So, really in every part of our business, there is good momentum. I think we are making progress with our customers, with our associates.”