pymnts Profile:
Walmart (NYSE: WMT)
Walmart Inc. is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores. Headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, the company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 and incorporated on October 31, 1969.
Walmart Grows Omnichannel Capabilities for Shoppers ‘Seeking Convenience’
April 26, 2024Walmart has been expanding its omnichannel capabilities across its three segments: Walmart U.S., Walmart International and Sam’s Club. The company’s people and technology are dedicated to giving customers the opportunity to ...Read moreThis Week in AI: Beyond LLMs, AI Forklifts, Weather Forecasting
April 26, 2024This week in artificial intelligence (AI) news, as large language models (LLMs) near technical limits, the focus shifts to retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), which combines information retrieval with natural language generation, ...Read moreAmazon Announces Prime Day’s Return as Shoppers Flock to Seasonal Deals
April 26, 2024With consumer spending increasingly motivated by deals and seasonality, Amazon is gearing up for its tenth-ever Prime Day savings event, as Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, announced via ...Read moreRobo-Forklifts Rev Up Walmart’s Warehouses
April 25, 2024In Walmart’s sprawling distribution centers, a quiet change is underway. The retail behemoth is preparing to deploy a fleet of 19 autonomous electric forklifts across four of its facilities, marking a significant step forward in integrating ...Read moreConsumers Are Springing for Nice Beers, but Not Premium Liquor
April 25, 2024Trying to balance inflationary pressures and the need to allow themselves at least some indulgences, shoppers are trading up on beer but not springing for premium wine and spirits. Heineken reported ...Read moreConsumers Want to Personalize Shopping With Extended Reality
April 25, 2024As consumers demand more immersive, captivating eCommerce journeys, many are increasingly interested in adopting extended reality — augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) — to improve their shopping experience. Take ...Read moreWalmart Gives Online Shoppers VIP Treatment to Compete With Amazon
April 25, 2024As Walmart looks to speed its digital transformation in an effort to shrink the eCommerce gap between itself and rival Amazon, the retailer is giving digital shoppers exclusive access to get them ...Read moreShoppers Demand More Experiential Brick-and-Mortar Stores
April 25, 2024With eCommerce often proving the most convenient option for the practical elements of shopping, consumers are demanding brick-and-mortar retailers provide them with an experience they cannot get online. Foot Locker on ...Read moreWalmart Investors Expect Stiffer Competition in Grocery Sector From Amazon
April 24, 2024Investors reportedly expect increased competition in the grocery sector after Amazon’s announcement Tuesday (April 23) of a new grocery delivery subscription benefit. Walmart and Kroger shares declined 1.8% and 2.3%, respectively, Tuesday, in moves that UBS analyst Michael ...Read moreOnline Shoppers Are Starting to See Amazon as a Fashion Destination
April 24, 2024As consumers look to buy clothing online, PYMNTS Intelligence research reveals that digital shoppers are increasingly turning to Amazon to meet their apparel needs. By the Numbers The PYMNTS Intelligence study “Whole Paycheck ...Read more
Uber Eats and Waymo Roll Out Autonomous Delivery in Phoenix
April 3, 2024Uber is expanding its Phoenix-based partnership with autonomous vehicle company Waymo. The company announced Wednesday (April 3) that it is now offering Uber Eats deliveries in the Arizona capital via Waymo vehicles. “Starting today in Phoenix, ...Read moreContinental and Aurora Finalize Autonomous Trucking System Design
January 5, 2024Mobility technology firm Continental and self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation have finalized the design of a scalable autonomous trucking system and plan to start production in 2027. Finalizing the design and ...Read moreWaymo Via, Uber Freight Sign Partnership on Self-Driving Trucks
June 7, 2022Waymo Via, Alphabet’s self-driving trucking unit, has signed a deal with Uber’s Freight business to help future customers deploy autonomous trucks more easily, Reuters wrote Tuesday (June 7). The partnership could ...Read moreSelf-Driving Truck Hauls 40K Pounds Of Butter Across US
December 30, 2019Silicon Valley startup Plus.ai is thought to be the first company to deploy a self-driving commercial truck to haul 40,000 pounds of butter roughly 42 hours cross-country from Tulare, California ...Read moreWaymo Returns Its Self-Driving Trucks To Arizona
May 30, 2019Waymo‘s self-driving trucks are making a return to Arizona. The company’s self-driving, Class 8, big-rig trucks haven’t been in the state for more than a year, though they were first tested ...Read moreDriverless Trucks Hog the Highway to an Autonomous Vehicle Future
October 2, 2018Driverless cars are indeed coming to roads soon enough — the U.K.’s transport secretary, in fact, recently predicted that those vehicles would appear there within four years. Even so, it might ...Read moreEx-Uber, Otto Exec’s Autonomous Truck Startup Snags $40M
August 8, 2018Kodiak Robotics, a self-driving vehicle startup, announced that it raised $40 million in Series A funding, led by global investment firm Battery Ventures. CRV, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tusk Ventures ...Read moreDaimler Unveils eMobility Unit For Trucks And Buses
June 6, 2018Combining its efforts from five divisions, Daimler Trucks is rolling out an eMobility unit. The idea behind the unit is to speed up the creation of battery-powered engines for use ...Read morePatent Applications Offer A Peek Into Walmart’s Possible Techy Future
June 1, 2018And the award for “techiest” retailer goes to … Walmart? The big-box retailer recently published a number of patent filings that would certainly make it a contender for “Most Futuristic Shopping ...Read moreUber Goes Autonomous For Uber Freight
March 7, 2018Uber Freight is finally launching its autonomous truck deliveries, with the first hauls driven in tandem with both human drivers and self-driving trucks being completed in Arizona. According to TechCrunch, Uber ...Read more
This Week in AI: Beyond LLMs, AI Forklifts, Weather Forecasting
April 26, 2024This week in artificial intelligence (AI) news, as large language models (LLMs) near technical limits, the focus shifts to retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), which combines information retrieval with natural language generation, ...Read moreRobo-Forklifts Rev Up Walmart’s Warehouses
April 25, 2024In Walmart’s sprawling distribution centers, a quiet change is underway. The retail behemoth is preparing to deploy a fleet of 19 autonomous electric forklifts across four of its facilities, marking a significant step forward in integrating ...Read moreTesla Calls Itself an AI, Robotics Company as Profits Plunge 55%
April 23, 2024There was nothing electric about electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla’s latest financial results. The company reported its first quarter 2024 earnings results Tuesday (April 23), disclosing a 55% drop in profits when ...Read moreRobots Redefine Surgical Landscape for Enhanced Patient Outcomes
April 23, 2024The integration of robotics is reshaping surgical procedures, promising enhanced precision, efficiency, and improved patient outcomes. Recent earnings reports from industry giants like Intuitive Surgical and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) shed light on the ...Read moreMobile Robots and AI Help Modernize, Streamline Warehouse Workflows
April 9, 2024The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) holds the promise to fully digitize all manner of verticals, all manner of workflows … … and in the age of eCommerce, advanced technology in ...Read moreMIT Engineers Aim to Advance Household Robots With AI Integration
April 8, 2024Thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence, household robots are getting smarter and could soon evolve far beyond their current roles as mostly self-guided vacuum cleaners. MIT engineers are working on a method that ...Read moreReport: Apple Considering Robots as New Opportunity for Growth
April 3, 2024Apple is reportedly considering entering the personal robotics market. The company is exploring projects in this field as it looks for new opportunities for growth after ending its electric vehicle project, Bloomberg reported Wednesday ...Read moreThis Week in AI: Human-Like Reasoning, Robots and Open Source
March 22, 2024This week in artificial intelligence (AI) news, a new technique, “Quiet-STaR,” teaches AI to think and chat more like humans by considering various ideas before answering, improving how we interact ...Read moreNvidia Unveils AI-Powered Humanoid Robot Project
March 21, 2024Nvidia is entering the humanoid robotics field with its new foundation model, Project GR00T. The company announced the artificial intelligence (AI) system at its developer conference this week, saying that it is versatile enough ...Read moreNvidia Launches Latest AI Chips and Software at Developer Conference
March 19, 2024Nvidia is rolling out a new series of artificial intelligence (AI) products at its annual developer conference in San Jose, California, as it strives to strengthen its reputation as the ...Read more
NRF Takes Gloves Off in Swipe Fee Settlement Objection Filing
April 28, 2024The National Retail Federation (NRF) on Friday (April 26) asked a federal judge to reject the proposed settlement of a class-action antitrust lawsuit over swipe fees charged to merchants to ...Read moreInfluencer Brands Are Getting Ready for a TikTok-Less Future
April 27, 2024G.R.W.M. (that’s “get ready with me”) for a major change in the social commerce landscape, because the pending TikTok ban in the United States could be make-or-break for all the brands that ...Read moreConsumers Are Slow to Adopt Mobile Wallets for Store Payments
April 26, 2024Consumers are using mobile wallets more, but it is taking a while for them to grow accustomed to utilizing the technology to pay in stores, PYMNTS Intelligence reveals. By the Numbers The ...Read moreWalmart Grows Omnichannel Capabilities for Shoppers ‘Seeking Convenience’
April 26, 2024Walmart has been expanding its omnichannel capabilities across its three segments: Walmart U.S., Walmart International and Sam’s Club. The company’s people and technology are dedicated to giving customers the opportunity to ...Read moreTrove CEO: Consumers Look to Brands for Streamlined Resale Experiences
April 26, 2024Tired of proverbially picking their way through online resale marketplaces, consumers are looking for more streamlined secondhand shopping experiences that more closely resemble the ease and simplicity of buying new. In ...Read more44% of Consumers Need Multiple Prompts for Card-Linked Offers
April 26, 2024Card-linked offers — those special promotions designed to encourage consumers to use their credit and debit cards at specific locations or for specific items — are used by about 2 ...Read moreAmazon Announces Prime Day’s Return as Shoppers Flock to Seasonal Deals
April 26, 2024With consumer spending increasingly motivated by deals and seasonality, Amazon is gearing up for its tenth-ever Prime Day savings event, as Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, announced via ...Read moreRobo-Forklifts Rev Up Walmart’s Warehouses
April 25, 2024In Walmart’s sprawling distribution centers, a quiet change is underway. The retail behemoth is preparing to deploy a fleet of 19 autonomous electric forklifts across four of its facilities, marking a significant step forward in integrating ...Read moreConsumers Are Springing for Nice Beers, but Not Premium Liquor
April 25, 2024Trying to balance inflationary pressures and the need to allow themselves at least some indulgences, shoppers are trading up on beer but not springing for premium wine and spirits. Heineken reported ...Read moreMother’s Day Spending Expected to Dip Following 2023 Record
April 25, 2024American consumers are projected to spend $33.5 billion on their moms next month. That’s according to new data from the National Retail Federation (NRF), which noted that amount is the second-highest ...Read more
New Data: 95 Pct. Of Consumers Don’t Use Mobile Wallets For In-Store Purchases
April 6, 2020Among its many profound impacts, the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically altered how consumers shop. Even before large-scale stay-at-home policies went into effect, most consumers sought to limit direct contact with ...Read moreREPORT: What Apple Pay At Five Says About The Future Of Mobile POS Payments
October 21, 2019Apple Pay went live five years ago yesterday, on Oct. 20, 2014. When Tim Cook took the stage a month beforehand to announce this mobile payments innovation, he shared Apple’s vision ...Read moreCuring Medicine’s Epidemic Of Noncompliance
March 22, 2018The New York Times wrote in April 2017 that the U.S. was in the throes of an epidemic for which there was not only a cure, but one that would ...Read moreMobile Wallets: Where’s The S-Curve?
February 26, 2018The classic product lifecycle that all of us had drilled into our heads in business school tells us that at the three-year mark for any new product, it’s top of ...Read moreWhat Payments Innovators Can Learn From Monkeys
January 15, 2018About 30 days from now, most of you reading this who made a New Year’s resolution will have broken it. Don’t feel too bad – you won’t be alone. By the middle ...Read moreMotivating Mobile In 2018
January 4, 2018Another year, another chance for mobile wallet players to convince consumers to give up their plastic cards and utilize the phone as a payments form factor. It hasn’t been easy. Despite ...Read moreMobile Payments 2.0: Building Better Retail Experiences
December 28, 2017Payments has by and large been a growth business for the last half decade or so, and that fact has been mappable in scores of innovations around the world. But, as ...Read moreTarget: Another Day, A New “Pay” Joins The Party
December 7, 2017For a minute, it seemed as though the proliferation of “Pays” was slowing down. Until recently, there was a tidal wave of Pays out to conquer digital with the power of mobile payments. Apple Pay, ...Read moreWhat Walmart’s Resurgence Means For Retail And The “Pays”
November 20, 2017Accomplished public intellectual and post-Keynesian economist John Kenneth Galbraith was well-known for four things. He didn’t think much of math and science — rather unusual given his choice of a profession that ...Read moreWhy Walmart Pay Is Leaving Apple Pay In The Dust
November 7, 2017Though Walmart’s mobile wallet, Walmart Pay, has not quite gotten the same level of coverage as its rivals in the field, particularly Apple Pay, it seems possible the QR code-based ...Read more