For Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon, employee engagement is a huge goal that helps build brand loyalty.
During the company’s first-quarter earnings conference call on Tuesday, McMillon shared a couple of stories from recent visits he made to stores here and abroad.
“I’ve recently visited stores and clubs in the Detroit and Seattle markets and I’m encouraged with our associates’ level of ownership in the business and understanding of the plan,” McMillon said, according to Seeking Alpha. “As we improve the experience in our stores, we continue to invest to deliver a stronger mobile and ecommerce experience. In U.S. we’re rolling out a more simplified checkout process on walmart.com, which is based on our global technology platform, Pangaea. An important part of this platform is that it delivers a better experience on mobile devices. Mobile is increasingly the driver of our ecommerce business.”
What’s more, McMillon talked about visiting stores and clubs in Beijing and Shanghai.
“I really enjoyed listening to our Yihaodian customer focus group and following one of our associates around as we delivered orders to apartments in Shanghai,” McMillon explained. “There are new, exciting 
developments happening in retail and I’m encouraged that we’re in the thick of it. But, I was also reminded that the same basic tenets of our business, like value for money, a great assortment, and customer service are what they’re after. Those customers we delivered to in Shanghai were quick to praise our associate in his service during deliveries. They liked our prices, but asked for items that we don’t yet carry. I was pleased to hear from them that we didn’t need to open the cases of merchandise because they trusted our delivery associate. That’s a big deal. The week before being in China, I walked stores in Mexico and saw a growing business in grocery home shopping there, too. The associates I visited with in Mexico were sensing a momentum in their business and it was good to see them leaning forward.”
These trips have McMillon smiling.
“So, we’ll make these investments in our people, we’ll give them the opportunity to move up so that they’re engaged in our business and happy to serve customers,” he said. “At the same time, we’ll continue making progress with digital, mobile and ecommerce. And, we’ll bring it all together in a seamless way that delivers value for customers. We’re moving on a lot of fronts and picking up some speed. Around the world, our associates are focused on running great stores, empowering their teams, developing technological solutions to solve customer problems, and integrating it all together.”