TETERBORO, N.J. — This holiday shopping season, you’ll see plenty of red and green at Wal-Mart. But you’re also going to see a lot of yellow.
The big-box chain is investing in specialized teams of store workers known as “holiday helpers,” recognizable by their bright yellow vests, Santa hats and festive shoulder bags. These staffers are going to be primarily focused on keeping checkout lines moving as efficiently as possible. They might direct you to an available cashier, open an extra register or run back into the aisles to get an item you forgot to grab.
During a holiday strategy presentation at a Wal-Mart store here, the retailer’s U.S. chief operating officer, Judith McKenna, said that the holiday helper team was devised in response to shopper feedback.
“That was actually the No. 1 thing that customers told us,” McKenna said. “Which is, ‘How can you help us get through the checkouts faster?’ ”
The holiday helpers are scheduled to start showing up in stores Nov. 4. The number of such workers will vary by location, based on the size and sales volume, but each store will ramp up the number of helpers on weekends and other busy days.
Wal-Mart’s investment in holiday helpers is evidence that, even in the digital era, retailers are focused on fine-tuning the in-store experience.
The world’s largest retailer did not offer specifics on what its deals would be this November and December, but executives said the approach would be similar to 2015. Last year, the chain offered special Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals after the Thanksgiving holiday, but otherwise it hewed to season-long promotions instead of such things as weekend-long flash sales. Executives said they thought that consumers would find that strategy less confusing and frustrating.
Wal-Mart also said it is expecting a surge in usage of its pickup program, which allows shoppers to order items online and retrieve them at a counter in the store. To make that operation run more smoothly, the retailer is moving this season to add department managers to its pickup areas. A sign that hangs behind the Teterboro store’s counter gives you a sense of their mandate: “High-five for a less-than-five-minute wait time.”
On the e-commerce front, Wal-Mart hopes to deliver a stronger performance this year by relying on an expanded assortment of items. At the beginning of 2016, it had about 8 million items for sale online; today, it has about 20 million, including goods offered by third-party sellers on its marketplace. That’s a sharp improvement, and yet it is still far less than the 350 million items that Amazon.com is thought to carry. (Amazon’s chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns The Washington Post.)
As always, Wal-Mart will also be trying to win the holiday shopping wars with its merchandise selection. In the toy aisle, it is counting on a lineup of 400 exclusive toys to distinguish its offering from that of the pack. In particular, executives pointed out a $398 ride-on Disney Princess Carriage that has been selling so quickly that the chain has had ask the supplier to make more of the electric coaches.
In the apparel department, Wal-Mart plans to ride the “ugly Christmas sweater” wave. In recent years, theme parties that ask revelers to come decked out in their cheesiest seasonal regalia have abounded. In turn, executives noticed that kitschy sweaters were selling well — and that men were often buying these garments in women’s size large, so they’ve ramped up their offering of festive sweaters this year.
