[Crew Review] Walmart welcomes foreign sellers

Changes, both welcome and otherwise

Walmart’s Quick and Calculated Moves

When the pandemic hit, brick-and-mortar king Walmart was quick to acknowledge that it had to make some serious changes to its business process. Unlike many boomers, the 58-year-old company gladly embraced new challenges and worked fast to keep up with the demands of online shopping. 

To do so, it launched Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) in February 2020. Recently, the Arkansas-based giant also turned some of its stores into Local Fulfillment Centers (LFCs). Both these changes may threaten Amazon’s FBA.

Now, in a strategy shift, Walmart is opening its doors to non-US sellers. This move makes the company more and more like Amazon. It has the potential to add more foreign sellers to a huge US marketplace.

So we might be expecting more Chinese sellers on Walmart. But it’s not as simple as you think.

Learn how this move can affect the future of e-commerce.

Andy’s Replacing Jeff, But Who’s Replacing Andy?

We might not be seeing Jeff Bezos as much starting Q3 after he steps down as Amazon’s CEO. So you might have to familiarize yourself with Andy Jassy, who will be taking over the role.

Here’s his picture. Savor it.

Image credit: Amazon

Andy is currently the head of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) division. When he steps up the corporate ladder, he will be replaced by Adam Selipsky, the CEO of Tableau, a software company owned by Salesforce.

Here he is, for reference. (You can decide later which of the two is more handsome.)

Image Credit: Tableau

Here’s what we know about Adam, based on the email Andy sent:

• He was one of the first VPs hired in AWS.
• He ran AWS's Sales, Marketing, and Support for 11 years.
• He became the CEO of Tableau in 2016.
• He will return to AWS on May 17.

However, Andy failed to mention some “important” things about Adam in the email. Based on his Twitter account, he’s a wine guy and a water skier. This has nothing to do with his qualifications as AWS’s new head, but we still found it interesting.

Mark’s Not Worried After All

 Apple allowing its users to opt out of tracking for advertising purposes is not news. Facebook has been campaigning against it since its announcement.

This is an important change because although iOS users take up only 27.47% of the global market pie, about 47% of people in the United States use iPhones.

But after pleading for business owners to speak up and for users to opt in for IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers), Zuckerberg is changing his attitude and adopts a more optimistic view.

He says that his company “will be able to manage through” Apple’s iOS update. In fact, he claims that it could even strengthen them because it can potentially lead sellers to sell directly on Facebook and Instagram. This is because it will then be harder for businesses to find customers that would want to use their products outside of their platforms.

The Facebook CEO teaches us that you can benefit from a bad situation if you only learn how to use your obstacle as a stepping stone forward. Good for you, Mark!

Uncle Jeff and Big Brother

 If you’ve been reading our articles and emails for a while, you might have noticed that we refer to Jeff Bezos as Uncle Jeff every now and then. This was started by one of our writers, and we’ve continued doing so after he left the team.

For those of you who are not well-versed in slang, Urban Dictionary defines Uncle Jeff as “the act of using the internet . . . to stalk and learn everything about a person.”

And with Amazon’s recent move of installing AI-powered cameras to their delivery vans, it’s safe to say this is an appropriate sobriquet for Bezos.

The Netradyne-manufactured camera system called Driveri (pronounced like “driver eye”) can detect 16 behaviors that trigger the cameras. This can include distracted driving to not wearing a seatbelt to yawning. An Amazon driver has already quit when this feature was added, saying it was a privacy violation and a breach of trust.

This is a screengrab of Last Mile Safety Senior Manager Karolina Haraldsdottir enumerating the 16 signals that trigger Driveri.

Amazon already tracks its drivers’ routes and requires their pictures at the start of the shift. Apparently, that isn’t enough surveillance.

When asked about this Big Brother move, Amazon said it would be beneficial to their workers as it will help them stay safe while on the road and “exonerate drivers from blame in safety incidents.”

So here’s how it works:

• Driveri records 100% of the time but uploads only when triggered by the driver or a safety condition.
• Only a limited number of authorized people can access the footage.

There is a way to turn the camera off but only when the ignition is also turned off (and this works only for the driver-facing camera). The outward-facing ones are kept open for 20 minutes.

The good news is that there are no audio or live views allowed, so no one can listen in while drivers complain about how underpaid and overworked they are.

Strikes, Strikes, and More Strikes

Speaking of complaints, there are more of those coming from Amazon workers—and not just the drivers.

If you read this newsletter every week, first of all, thank you. Second, you may be tired of reading about the plight of Amazon’s workers. Rest assured, they’re tired of their situation too.

This is evidenced not only by their unionization attempt but also by the many strikes that are organized, calling out the company’s unfair treatment of its employees. Workers in Italy went on strike a few days ago for being pushed harder every day. Those in India are also set to host a nationwide strike in the coming days.

Amazon is using gamification in its warehouses to boost employees’ morale. But it’s not all fun and games for workers who have no choice but to work for the e-commerce giant.