Nedbank Greenbacks delights its clients through bank-wide loyalty (#705)

Paula: This show is brought to you by Comarch, the global loyalty partner trusted by enterprise brands in over 50 countries.

Paula: With more than 30 years of experience and 290 million loyalty members on board, Comarch knows what it takes to build real connections that last.

Paula: Their AI-powered tools turn data into action, and customers into super fans.

Paula: From fraud-proof platforms to personalised journeys, Comarch helps you boost engagement, grow revenue and make loyalty your competitive edge.

Paula: Want to see how they do it?

Paula: Head over to Comarch.com and discover loyalty that actually works.

Mariana: We are probably world leaders in the supply chain, and like I’ve told you at the beginning, everything starts with a customer at the centre.

Bridget: What are you seeing levels of adoption of shopping and purchasing in-store and shopping and purchasing online?

Mariana: Ultimately, what customers want is choice.

Mariana: The Mexican consumer still likes to walk into physical stores.

Mariana: In fact, for many families, grocery shopping or going to a Walmart super centre is a family activity.

Mariana: You will see them together on a Saturday and Sunday.

Mariana: So what I think is magical about us is that we can provide an equally amazing in-store experience as we do online.

Mariana: I think our philosophy is very consistent.

Mariana: We want to create trust through the promise of price stability.

Mariana: There’s pillars to our value proposition, which are everyday low price, the right assortment, convenience, and we believe that all those three things together will lead to trust and that trust is the ultimate way to achieve customer loyalty.

Mariana: Start with a customer.

Mariana: Find that empathy.

Mariana: Put yourselves in their shoes.

Mariana: That’s the way to loyalty.

Paula: Hello and welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV, a show for loyalty marketing professionals.

Paula: I’m Paula Thomas, the founder and CEO of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV, where we feature insightful conversations with loyalty professionals from the world’s leading brands.

Paula: Today’s episode is hosted by Bridget Blaise-Shamai, former president of the AA Advantage program, the award-winning Travel Rewards program of American Airlines.

Paula: Bridget is a global C-suite executive and is currently advising VC-backed startups in loyalty, travel and payments.

Paula: Enjoy.

Bridget: Hi, I am Bridget Blaise-Shamai and welcome everyone to this edition of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV.

Bridget: I’m excited to have my friend and colleague, Mariana Fonseca, chief customer officer for Walmart Mexico and Central America as my guests today.

Bridget: Mariana has a rich background in B2C and B2B with globally recognized brands like American Airlines, Virgin Voyages, MasterCard, and now Walmart.

Bridget: As a multinational retail corporation, Walmart is the largest company by revenue in the world, and Walmart Mexico and Central America is its largest division outside the United States.

Bridget: Our conversation will center around how Walmart Mexico leaves nothing to chance in winning the hearts and spend of its customers, ranging from its deep commitment to everyday low prices, for customers to save money and live better, to its strategic mode of thousands of physical locations, its employees, its world-class supply chain, retail media, omni-channel marketing, financial services, telco, and on and on, that all together create Walmart Mexico and Central America’s holistic approach to engaging and retaining customers, all without a loyalty program.

Bridget: I think you’re gonna really enjoy our conversation.

Bridget: Hello, everyone.

Bridget: Today’s podcast provides us with the opportunity to learn how Walmart Mexico and Central America is successfully winning in the highly competitive retail space in this area of the world.

Bridget: To that end, I am delighted to welcome the company’s Chief Customer Officer, Mariana Fonseca.

Bridget: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty.

Mariana: Hi, Bridget.

Mariana: So happy to be here.

Bridget: It’s great to have you.

Bridget: It really is.

Bridget: It’s just a thrill, you know, as my colleague, my friend, to reunite on this wonderful platform of Let’s Talk Loyalty.

Bridget: One thing we like to do as we start out our interview with our guests is to give our listeners a bit of an opportunity to get to know our guests.

Bridget: And so we have a couple of questions.

Bridget: The first is, please share with our listeners a nonfiction book that has inspired you, influenced you, impacted you on, say, your style of leadership or your approach to customer loyalty, or just something in general that has helped you really achieve the success you have in your professional career.

Mariana: I can’t choose one, so I’m going to briefly mention two that are very top of my list right now.

Mariana: One is Think Again by Adam Grant, which is a wonderful book because as a senior leader, sometimes you get to cut up on your own ideas, and the only way to innovate is by learning to unlearn and being open to new ideas.

Mariana: I think that’s the only way to continue to grow, to drive really great insights for your customers.

Mariana: So Think Again, probably one of my favorite books, non-fiction ever.

Mariana: And then the second one that I’m reading right now, I had read in the past, but I’m rereading is Mindset, which is again, this idea that there is no limit to growth and opportunities, and you basically can have the right growth mindset to learn just about anything.

Mariana: I think in a world where new technology is popping up every single day, where, you know, Gen Alphas will know more than I do around, you know, coding within the next few months, probably, it is important that we keep our minds open, that we can continue to learn and grow in any area, despite our age, our background, and anything else.

Mariana: So those would be my two choices of book suggestions.

Bridget: Well, two excellent ones.

Bridget: You know, when I did my podcast with Paula, the founder of Lets Talk Loyalty, I too cited an Adam Grant book.

Bridget: I cited Give and Take.

Bridget: So, I think we’re very fortunate to have someone like Adam out there, really publishing content to help all of us to be our best versions, both personally and professionally.

Bridget: So, thank you for sharing those two great examples.

Bridget: Also, you know, just building upon non-fiction that you have read, that have really influenced you.

Bridget: Please tell our listeners a bit about your background and really, you know, what has really been a part of your getting to this level of Chief Customer Officer for Walmart Mexico and Central America?

Mariana: Sure.

Mariana: Well, I have quite an eclectic background.

Mariana: I’m a civil engineer who really only worked in construction for about a couple of years.

Mariana: Then I turned into a finance professional.

Mariana: My first job out of business school was at American Airlines, as you know.

Mariana: I did a handful of finance jobs, then moving to strategic alliances, did a bit of corporate planning and execution, understanding some of our wider range initiatives that we had at American, and then landed the second, I would say the second half of my time at American in digital product, which was fantastic in a way that I understood really what the customer was about and what they needed in order to navigate through our app, through our website, through our kiosks.

Mariana: Got to understand loyalty quite heavily because one of the first things, as you know, that I worked on were ancillaries.

Mariana: And one of the biggest levers to create loyalty in the airline space are the ancillaries that we can provide as earned perks.

Mariana: After my time at American, I left an airline in the middle of the pandemic to join a cruise line, and a cruise line that didn’t exist.

Mariana: So I joined Virgin Voyages, which was a new company from Sir Richard Branson and the Bain Capital Group.

Mariana: To be able to redefine what cruising meant.

Mariana: And it was incredible to see how the virgin mentality about disruption and creating irresistible experiences was so deeply founded on understanding the customer and its pain points.

Mariana: So there, I led Loyalty, Digital and Marketing.

Mariana: And then left for a couple of years to join Mastercard, leading Loyalty for Latin America.

Mariana: So it’s not a secret that Mastercard is actually the largest loyalty provider in the world.

Mariana: So there, I got to see a number of customers across, from Mexico to the Caribbean to South America, banks and merchants who are leveraging technology to drive customer engagement.

Mariana: And while I was there, I got the call to come and join Walmart to lead the customer office, which includes marketing.

Mariana: It includes customer knowledge and insights, customer care, as well as data and product, which are critical to making sure that we can actually tend to the needs of the customer.

Mariana: And that’s my current role.

Bridget: I applaud this.

Bridget: This is just a terrific set of experiences that you’ve had in a very short career, right?

Bridget: And how varied and diverse, really zeroing in on, you know, what does it mean to win with the customer?

Bridget: And how is it you bring content and capabilities and learnings and et cetera to the table to accomplish that?

Bridget: So I really do applaud you, Mariana.

Bridget: It’s just terrific to hear all that.

Mariana: Thank you.

Mariana: Thank you so much.

Bridget: So one thing I learned in preparation for this podcast with you today is that Walmart Mexico and Central America actually has four store concepts.

Bridget: You know, we have Walmart Express, Super Walmart, we have Bodega Aurera, and we have Sam’s Club.

Bridget: Please tell our listeners what are the strategic and customer objectives with having four different store formats and, you know, the role they play in winning the hearts and suspenders of your customers.

Mariana: Well, the Mexican consumer, as you would imagine, has a broad range of needs and looks and is very different in different areas.

Mariana: So having a portfolio business like we do with the four different formats in Mexico allows us to serve specific customer segments with their unique needs.

Mariana: So, for example, Bodega Aurera, which is our lower income format, is for our consumer.

Mariana: We call her Andrea, and Andrea lives day to day.

Mariana: She needs to go in, find everything she needs at the lowest possible price she can pay.

Mariana: So we work really hard to make sure that we’re true to that value proposition for Andrea and ensure that we don’t do things like force her to buy three shampoos so that she gets a really good price.

Mariana: So we focus on the lowest price that Andrea can pay.

Mariana: On the other side, we have Walmart Express, which is for our let’s say AB customer or ABC Plus customer, which is a smaller Walmart format in neighborhood areas.

Mariana: Kind of what you would see in the US as the neighborhood stores in Walmart, with slightly differentiated and more upscale assortment, but still keeping to our everyday low price.

Mariana: And then for some of the customers who have broader needs, we have our super center store, where this is very similar to what you would find in the US.

Mariana: It’s a big box format and we have the broadest assortment you can find on groceries and consumables, as well as a large selection of general merchandise.

Mariana: So it’s a one-stop shop, where yes, we’re true to everyday low price, but on top of that, we can bring new assortment, innovation, and really generate that trust with our customers.

Mariana: And of course, SAMS fits a specific membership style need, where customers pay a membership price and they get access to disruptive prices as well as new and disruptive products as well.

Mariana: So having that portfolio really allows us to go deep and serve our customer needs wherever they need them.

Bridget: So one thing I think is universal, no matter in which country you operate, is the attractiveness of low pricing.

Bridget: And certainly, you know, the brand EDLP, Everyday Low Price, is absolutely Walmart.

Bridget: But while that is universal, tell us a bit about how you localized the shopping and purchasing experience for your customers across these four store concepts.

Mariana: Yeah, I think that the first thing we do is staying true to our customer value proposition, right?

Mariana: Like I think I gave you a briefly example of what we do for Andrea in Bodega Herrera, where we really focused on unit prices.

Mariana: Like I said, we know her very well.

Mariana: We talk to Andrea all the time, we listen to her, we see her transactions, and we know that when she comes into the store, she’s spending maybe an average of $10 to $20, and with that, she has to feed her family.

Mariana: She may come in multiple times a week because she keeps her groceries day-to-day.

Mariana: We focus on making sure that we have the right products, at the right sizes, at the right price points for her, and that we can keep consistent pricing to build trust with her so that she doesn’t feel that she needs to only come and shop with us when there’s a promotional period, but yet that she can trust that we will have the lowest pricing available for her through a continued time frame, which is not normal in Mexico.

Mariana: Mexico is a very high and low market in terms of our competition.

Mariana: And then we do the same for all of the other formats.

Mariana: Now, the other thing we do is it’s not a single Mexico.

Mariana: We have multiple states.

Mariana: Mexico is a large country.

Mariana: So we also find ways in localizing that.

Mariana: So regionalizing the assortment selection and making sure that we have the right product at the right region because we are national, with a national presence.

Bridget: That certainly makes sense because here in the United States, we have very distinct areas of our country where what works and is relevant in the Northeast may not in the South and vice versa.

Bridget: So I think it’s a great point to call out to our listeners.

Bridget: And so keeping on the theme of the everyday low price, we talked a bit about the store formats and how through segmentation, you’re appealing to certain customers, either based on desire for more high end, but still competitively priced or folks who really are more day to day consumers.

Bridget: Is there anything more in terms of local cultural actions that you take that relates to everyday low price?

Bridget: Is there something different that you do in Mexico and Central America versus, you know, say here in the United States or Canada?

Mariana: I think our philosophy is very consistent, right?

Mariana: We want to create trust through the promise of price stability.

Mariana: However, I think a lot of the nuances that happen around pricing may happen around assortment selection.

Mariana: So we listen to the customer.

Mariana: I think, like you said, the products that are relevant in one area may not be to the other.

Mariana: And what we’re doing is we can use customer behavioral data to understand, look, and this may not read for some of the non-Mexican consumers.

Mariana: But in most of Mexico, we use mayonaise.

Mariana: But in a very specific part of the Southeast, they use something called aderezo, which is dressing, which is kind of like mayonaise, although they’ll tell me it’s not at all.

Mariana: So we make sure that for that region, we will have within our assortment aderezo, which is critical.

Mariana: And that when we think of pricing, the entry price point is for the unit of need and not necessarily the national product.

Mariana: Those are the type of things we can do through data, that we can really understand consumer needs, and we can go and focalize specific regional actions.

Mariana: Now there’s a base that’s national.

Mariana: We will take care of that always consistently, because we also want to be a consistent brand.

Mariana: We want to make sure that the Walmart you experience in Mexico City is the same one that you experience in Chihuahua, Mexico.

Mariana: However, we do look locally to make sure that we understand the regional consumer.

Bridget: So, I think what I’m listening and hearing is at scale, Walmart is also focused on detail.

Bridget: You know, retail is detail, and you just gave a great example of that.

Bridget: And I love that there’s no excuse with Walmart.

Bridget: You know, we’re at scale and we’re committed to our customers all the way through.

Bridget: And in this example, dressing versus mayonnaise, depending on which part of the country you’re in.

Bridget: So, I’m convinced always on EDLP with Walmart, right?

Bridget: But the reality is, every day low price is only as awesome as the customer gets to realize it, take advantage of it.

Bridget: Talk to us a little bit about not only the commitment Walmart, Mexico and Central America has to having product in stock, but more importantly, having product reliably, consistently on the shelves.

Bridget: Tell us a little bit about your supply chain and how you make that magic happen.

Mariana: I mean, we are probably world leaders in supply chain, and like I’ve told you at the beginning, everything starts with the customer at the center.

Mariana: A lot of the thing we do is we analyze availability from a customer needs state.

Mariana: First of all, we make sure that all of our supply chain is consistent throughout.

Mariana: We have very rigorous standards, but when it comes down to what’s on the shelf for the customer, which is ultimately what the customer cares, they don’t care whether there was something happening on the highway and the product couldn’t get there.

Mariana: They don’t understand if suppliers are having shortages.

Mariana: What they understand is they want to see product on the shelf.

Mariana: We do a very interesting process in the stores to ensure that we continuously validate whether we have open spaces on the shelf, but not only that, we continuously evaluate our assortment to make sure that we have the right product available.

Mariana: Because it’s not about just stocking up the shelves, but it’s making sure that every need base of a customer is met.

Mariana: What do I mean by that is, as a consumer, you may need a shampoo.

Mariana: When you think about shampoos, you may think, I need five different variants, but they’re not just all within the same need base.

Mariana: You may need one that’s for dandruff, and you may need one that’s for dry hair, and then you may need one that’s to create volume.

Mariana: Within those, we want to have breadth of assortment.

Mariana: We continuously look at each individual category, each different product line, and we see, are we meeting all of the needs base of that assortment line for our customers, and then do we have the availability of those products on the shelf?

Mariana: So, we combine the defining the assortment to make sure it’s what customers need with, once we’ve defined that, ensuring that the product is on the shelf through our very advanced supply chain practice.

Bridget: So, as I just listened to all this, it really puts me in a position of thinking about how you’re earning customer trust, right?

Bridget: Where you are prioritizing relevance of product and pricing, and that the pricing is consistently offered as an everyday low price, and that the customer can access it with confidence.

Bridget: All of that consistency creates trust.

Bridget: And as you and I both know, you have to have customer trust first in your path to having customer loyalty.

Bridget: So really, you know, love all this huge efforts that Walmart goes through to earn the trust of their customers.

Mariana: And I think you’ve summarized it beautifully.

Mariana: There’s pillars to our value proposition, which are everyday low price, the right assortment, convenience, and we believe that all those three things together will lead to trust, and that trust is the ultimate way to achieve customer loyalty.

Mariana: So beautifully said.

Bridget: So one thing I think is just an extraordinary strategic moat of assets are the physical locations at Walmart Mexico and Central America has.

Bridget: My research says there’s over 3,000 locations.

Bridget: Now I’m actually going to ask my question in an omnichannel perspective, but you’re viewing, and you can correct me, viewing these thousands of locations kind of sitting at the heart of omnichannel and how Walmart has an omnichannel approach to its customers.

Bridget: Share with us please a bit about what are you seeing, either the same or different, or levels of adoption of shopping and purchasing in-store and shopping and purchasing online?

Mariana: Well, ultimately what customers want is choice.

Mariana: The Mexican consumer still likes to walk into physical stores.

Mariana: In fact, for many families, grocery shopping or going to a Walmart Supercenter is a family activity.

Mariana: You will see them together on a Saturday and Sunday.

Mariana: What I think it’s magical about us is that we can provide an equally amazing in-store experience as we do online.

Mariana: When we talk to our customers ahead of big event season, like the equivalent of Black Friday in the US, there’s a shopping season here in Mexico a couple of weeks prior.

Mariana: We do a lot of focus groups.

Mariana: We go out, we talk to our customers, we’ll listen to them to see what they’re looking for.

Mariana: One of the things that struck me the last time we did that, and I was able to participate in one of these, was that customers feel like when they’re making a big purchase, let’s say they’re buying a flat-screen TV, they sometimes want to go to the store and they want to see it.

Mariana: They want to see what the remote looks like.

Mariana: They want to see if the picture quality is right.

Mariana: They don’t necessarily trust immediately that they’re just going to buy it online and it’ll get to their house.

Mariana: They actually want to have a physical experience with the products that they’re buying.

Mariana: Then they get to the side.

Mariana: Do they grab it just from the store and take it home?

Mariana: Do they pay it and have it delivered?

Mariana: Do they go back home and then shop online?

Mariana: And one thing that’s very important to us in Mexico is there’s still some part of the population that’s not using credit cards.

Mariana: So we have things like you can buy online but pay in store.

Mariana: So you have access to a broad catalog and then you can go to the store and pay for your items in cash and still get that e-commerce experience.

Mariana: You can only achieve that breadth of choices when you have the physical footprint that we have and the digital capabilities that we have all combined together.

Mariana: That’s our approach.

Mariana: It’s about giving choice to the customer so that they have the experience that they want to have.

Bridget: I think certainly I’m learning something in real-time here that I love.

Bridget: It’s not just about content and capabilities and ADLP, but how one pays for something is also a point of needed relevance.

Bridget: That can be a part of the trust and the loyalty equation.

Bridget: I love hearing about maybe card adoption isn’t where it is in other countries, but we want to have that online shopping experience and it be purchased in store on the customer’s terms.

Bridget: Love, again, this attention to detail.

Bridget: But given that, you know, how would you describe the adoption of online commerce for Walmart Mexico and Central America at this point?

Mariana: Look, it’s growing.

Mariana: E-commerce in Mexico, we have double digit growth, I think, for the past 15 years, not only Walmart, but I would say in general as an industry.

Mariana: And the Mexican consumer is getting there.

Mariana: We do see it skew younger and skew to more affluent, as you would expect.

Mariana: So a lot of the concentration of e-commerce happens with ABC+, as well as I would say 45, 50 under.

Mariana: So again, one of the ways that we bridge that bringing people into the e-commerce space is through the creation of, and I think we’ll talk about it a little later, but the creation of financial products that are more accessible so that they can join the digital economy, as well as telco solutions that are also more accessible so that they can join the digital economy.

Mariana: So it’s definitely growing.

Mariana: It’s a big opportunity.

Mariana: There’s still a lot of an untapped market, but we want to be part of the way to bring people in.

Mariana: You know, part of our mission is to help people live better.

Mariana: It’s to save money and live better.

Mariana: And the live better part includes getting access to, in this case, the digital economy so that they can shop online and have access to all of their needs being met.

Bridget: So as we think about this, though, one thing I think you and I both have a lot of passion around is observing the customer behavior, right?

Bridget: And you know, I would think it’s even a little bit complicated what Walmart’s doing for different form, for four different store formats.

Bridget: And I suspect you’ve got some customers shopping and purchasing at each of them or three of them or two of them.

Bridget: So given these formats and given your omni-channel approach to your customers, you know, how is it that you knit it all together so you can make those observations, those insights and then put it back together and action it for ongoing wins with the customer?

Mariana: We do it with our amazing tech muscle.

Mariana: As you would imagine, we have different signals coming from Sam’s than we do from Walmart, than we do from e-commerce, than we do from some of our vertical businesses.

Mariana: And we mesh it all together so that we can understand our consumer better.

Mariana: Because like you said, there’s definitely coexistence within the brands, not necessarily as big as you would think, because customers still have specific preference.

Mariana: And as I explained at the beginning, we have specific customer value propositions for each of our formats.

Mariana: So we don’t want to overlap.

Mariana: That’s the beauty of the portfolio business.

Mariana: But we do stitch together the knowledge to understand, maybe my Walmart Express customer visits Walmart Express two or three times a week, because that’s where they go for their daily needs, is close to home.

Mariana: I actually have one two blocks walking distance from my house.

Mariana: So I forgot the bananas.

Mariana: I’ll just walk over and get it.

Mariana: That’s the type of store and that’s how it meets my needs.

Mariana: But every once in a while, I will need a bigger shopping trip, where I need some general merchandise.

Mariana: Maybe I need to buy some towels and cushions.

Mariana: And for that, I’ll make a special trip to the Walmart Supercenter store or to Sam’s Club.

Mariana: But now behind the scenes, we’re able to understand how many of those customers co-exist within formats and how do we meet their needs?

Mariana: How many customers are buying only on our brick stores versus our mixed shoppers are buying online?

Mariana: And what type of shopping missions are they’re doing in one place versus the other?

Mariana: So especially when we communicate with them, we communicate with them in a way that’s relevant, because loyalty also comes from understanding a customer and being able to meet them where they’re at.

Mariana: So if you’re a Bodega customer, I’m not going to come and try to acquire you into, I don’t know, coming into SAMS if it doesn’t make sense.

Mariana: So we don’t want to do it for the sake of doing it, that’s stitching together.

Mariana: We want to do it where it makes sense for the customer, because we believe we can add value into their lives, because we see their consumer behavior.

Mariana: But again, I think it’s interesting for us, but when we stitch, when we bring the communication together, it has to be where it makes sense, and a lot of the times, it doesn’t.

Bridget: It’s clear that Walmart is giving customers what they want versus what they have.

Bridget: So to that end, what would you share with the listeners today on the status of the CRM platform for Walmart Mexico and Central America?

Mariana: Well, this one’s interesting.

Mariana: I think you’ll enjoy this one.

Mariana: So when you’re in travel, as we were, you always had customer contact information, right?

Mariana: In order to get on the plane, you have to give email and phone number.

Mariana: In fact, you have to give your data.

Mariana: Like we had in travel richness of customer data and every transaction was identified to a customer.

Mariana: So doing CRM in travel, it’s relatively easy because you know a lot of things about them, right?

Mariana: However, in retail, one of the things that is interesting is you can walk into a Walmart store, grab a bag of potato chips, pay with cash and leave, and I’ve never known you were in there.

Mariana: So CRM has a very different angle when a lot of your consumer, especially in Mexico where a lot of the transactions are still cash transactions, where I can’t stitch you to who you are, let’s say in my digital ecosystem.

Mariana: So one of the things we did was last year, one of my amazing colleagues launched the Beneficios program, which is akin to a loyalty program, except it’s not a points-based program or a cash back program, it is a benefits program.

Mariana: We have partnerships with different companies who want to be able to provide benefits and access to some of our client base, and they’re the ones gifting benefits to our customers.

Mariana: So in exchange for your phone number, you’ll get, I don’t know, a free ticket to go to the movies with your family, or months of free streaming, or a deep discount on your favorite restaurant.

Mariana: Now that we have your phone number, now I know that the Bridget that came into the store and grabbed a bag of chips is the same Bridget who just ordered a mattress online and were able to take that data together and really tailor it.

Mariana: I know you asked me originally, what’s the status of CRM?

Mariana: Well, now that we have the data, now we can do a proper life cycle mapping, which is extremely complex because it’s multi-format.

Mariana: Typically, in a single company, you would have a linear life cycle where you’re onboarded, you’re stable, you’re maybe going to a tride, we try to bring you back, the standard.

Mariana: In this case, you may be transacting in bodega, then maybe you graduate to a super center, maybe you get a SAMS membership, so it has a lot of different angles now to how we do life cycle management.

Mariana: We can start tailoring those communication journeys to where you are as a customer, as well as based on what we have to offer as a company.

Mariana: But we are, let’s say, on our early stages but with so much opportunity to be probably the company that best communicates with our customers just based on the breadth of information we have.

Bridget: So, Walmart is achieving customer loyalty without having a traditional loyalty scheme.

Bridget: Or what we just covered off here are examples of how you are remaining relevant and competitive with what would be wrappings or benefits from a loyalty program.

Bridget: You’re just solving it differently without having to have an incentive-based program, the expense of an incentive-based program, because Walmart is so committed to everyday low price.

Bridget: I mean, is that a fair summary of all this?

Mariana: That is a very fair summary.

Mariana: As a lot of the listeners will know, and I know, and I know you know, loyalty programs can carry some liability.

Mariana: They require some investment to attract and retain your customers.

Mariana: And we want to put all of that investment back into price for our customers.

Mariana: It is essential to who we are, right?

Mariana: With having everyday low price comes the need to have everyday low cost as well.

Mariana: So cost management is critical for us, which is why we think about loyalty more holistically.

Mariana: Yes, we have this benefits program, which is closer to a loyalty program because you do get some perks, except in this case, we have partners that help us provide those perks.

Mariana: But in exchange, we not only communicate with you better, but we drive loyalty through the core of who we are, which is what we offer to the customers consistently low prices and the assortment that they need.

Mariana: And if we can meet those two basic needs, which is the original reason why they come with us, then the loyalty will come and then everything else on top of that is just fine-tuning on how we communicate so that they understand that we’re here to serve their needs and to help them live better.

Bridget: So, I mean, clearly, a clever, efficient approach, right, to having some trappings of an incentive-based program, some partnerships that come in and provide the benefits.

Bridget: And I’m assuming that this is yet another cache of data on the customer behavior, what they’re liking and using with your partners that then gets fed back in to help you make even better decisions going forward for your customers.

Mariana: 100%.

Mariana: And that’s the loop that we try to do, right?

Mariana: Our suppliers are our partners in this.

Mariana: Without their help, we cannot serve our customers’ needs.

Mariana: So we leverage all of the data that we have available to us to work with them so that they also know our customer better.

Mariana: Because if we both know the customer really well, we’ll both make really good decisions for them.

Mariana: And that’s how we think about the whole, let’s call it customer data ecosystem.

Bridget: So one thing, again, in preparation for today, I learned 88% of your customers are within 10 minutes of one of the Walmart formats.

Bridget: There just may be a moment or many moments where a customer needs once delivery.

Bridget: Tell us a bit about how Walmart is offering delivery, solving for delivery, in this region of the world.

Mariana: Well, first of all, Mexico is huge on delivery.

Mariana: I’ve only been back living in Mexico for the last 10 months.

Mariana: So I’m used to the standard delivery options you have in the US.

Mariana: But Mexico is very into delivery.

Mariana: Even though you can still walk and have short distances, companies here around quick delivery have grown significantly.

Mariana: It’s a big part of the culture and who you are.

Mariana: So it is expected, even though we have the accessibility of stores being nearby, delivery is a big important component to the Mexican consumer.

Mariana: So how do we solve for it?

Mariana: Similar to what we do in the US, we have a breadth of ways in which we can deliver our goods to our customers, whether it’s within two hours.

Mariana: If you want to do your grocery shopping because you’re going to have dinner tonight and you really don’t have the time to go and step into the store even though it’s right next door, you put your order in and in two hours it will be in your house, same day delivery, next day delivery.

Mariana: But we also have an extended assortment.

Mariana: So there are things that we may not even have within our stores, a broader range of things and goods you can buy, that we can deliver to your house in two, three, four days depending on what you’re buying.

Mariana: And we get to leverage some of the knowledge of inventory about a broader assortment from our family in the US as well.

Mariana: So we are able to solve for deliveries in many ways that not every company does.

Mariana: Because many companies will have maybe just the on-demand grocery delivery, or they may have the extended goods delivery.

Mariana: But we are able to offer a whole spectrum of goods whether you need them now, or it’s a bigger purchase that you need within a week.

Bridget: So is that a delivery, a part of the basic proposition, or do customers pay a fee for it?

Bridget: What is really the proposition to the customer in terms of delivery?

Bridget: Do they need to do anything other than click a button and say, deliver please?

Mariana: Well, they do click a button to say deliver please.

Mariana: And depending on the type of delivery, there may or may not be a fee, as well as depending on the size of their ticket.

Mariana: And similar to the US, we have a product here called Walmart Pass, not Walmart Plus, which is a delivery membership.

Mariana: So same that you would find with other retailers, where if you meet a minimum basket, you will get access to free deliveries wherever you’re located.

Bridget: Yeah, that’s great.

Bridget: I mean, and I appreciate learning that delivery is a thing in this part of the world, and really great to learn that.

Bridget: And so in terms of the spirit of learning, what I really further admire alongside the everyday low price commitment that Walmart has, essentially also has a very basic promise to its customers that you will find everything you need to save and live better through Walmart, or Mexico and Central America.

Bridget: And so I’d love to share with our listeners, first and foremost, about the financial services offerings that you provide to your customers.

Mariana: Well, I think this is a brilliant strategy, and I wasn’t here for it.

Mariana: So not to the leaders before me who’ve come up with this, but as I was telling you early, Mexico still has some areas to grow in terms of financial inclusion.

Mariana: So one of the things we realized is, in order to bring people into the digital economy, we also have to help them.

Mariana: We realize that there’s big barriers to banking, big barriers to telcos, and if we can remove those barriers for them, they can come into the digital economy.

Mariana: So we do have what we called CASHI, which is a digital wallet that you can load.

Mariana: Imagine you only, you get paid in cash to, and you don’t have enough credit to get a credit card.

Mariana: You can load your cash into our CASHI wallet at the store and hold now your money in a digital space, which is safe, allows you to transact online, and also allows you to transact in the store.

Mariana: So we’ve created now this ecosystem, where through CASHI you can also receive your remittances.

Mariana: So if you’re getting money sent from the US, you can receive it through CASHI.

Mariana: If you need to pay for your electricity bill or your water bill, you can pay it directly through CASHI.

Mariana: So it makes the lives of our customers a lot easier when they have the ability to do something that before, because they didn’t have access to banking, they wouldn’t be able to.

Mariana: Now, through that ecosystem, we’ve been growing and now there’s a CASHI account, and there’s CASHI Banking, which we just launched this last month, and it’s growing.

Mariana: So we want to bring people along so that it’s not only a wallet, but they can continue through the banking stair until they have full access to financial services that maybe they didn’t in the past.

Mariana: So again, core of who we are, it ties to retail, yes, but it ties very squarely into our mission of helping people live better.

Bridget: You said another word that I think is really important as it relates to, again, customer loyalty, ease.

Bridget: Ease by which they can engage with the brand, and that was a part of your explanation around payments.

Bridget: And there’s nothing more telling, I think, in terms of a customer’s priority, preference than how they spend their money.

Bridget: I mean, for some customers, it’s how they spend their time, but the most customers, it’s how they spend their money.

Bridget: And the fact that ease is really telling that Walmart’s in it to win it, and save money and live better for their customers is very real and deep.

Bridget: So the financial services, what about Telco?

Mariana: Well, Telco was a similar story, right?

Mariana: We realized that a lot of people did want to shop online, but they didn’t actually have the equipment or the lines to do it.

Mariana: In fact, many families, when they need to shop online in Mexico, they go and find their aunt or their cousin who has a computer and a credit card, and they all like give them the cash, and they bank together, and that’s how they had access to the economy, because not everybody had maybe a smartphone or data in their plans to be able to go and buy something online.

Mariana: And we realized that the barrier to get a cell phone in Mexico were actually pretty high, and there wasn’t an EDLP version of a cell phone plan.

Mariana: So that’s where Byte was created, BAIT.

Mariana: That is our telco company, and we are one of the top telco providers now in Mexico.

Mariana: It’s grown extremely fast because we can provide access to telephone services and to the Internet, of course, in a way that other companies hadn’t.

Mariana: So we stayed true to who we were, again, solved a pain point that our customers had in order to come into the digital economy and solved it in a very EDLP way for them, and we’ve seen that growth through the numbers.

Mariana: And of course, similar to the financial services piece, it creates a virtuous loop back into the ecosystem or company, generates that trust and then be able to give them access to something that they didn’t have in the past.

Bridget: Jan, Walmart is as committed to save costs and live better for their customers, right?

Bridget: And then lastly, anything you want to share on health services for your customers?

Mariana: Well, same thing.

Mariana: We have a pharmacy business, of course, we sell health and we realized that a lot of our customers didn’t have access or ways to pay for what can sometimes be costly services.

Mariana: So we created a health membership as well to help with some of this, which provides not only maybe discounts on pharmacy, but also access to regular checkups, which some of our customers didn’t have.

Mariana: So again, bring them closer to the retail, but more than anything solves a need that they had that was unmet.

Bridget: So we’ve talked about a lot of tenets of trust, relevance, ease, reliable.

Bridget: Now, what I love about Telco Financial Services, Health Services, it allows, as you have said more than once, the ecosystem, but more of a habitual engagement by customers with the Walmart brand and its family of brands in Walmart and Central America.

Bridget: So again, as I have said in my introductory remarks, Walmart leaves nothing to chance to win with their customers, to help them save money and live better.

Bridget: So thank you.

Bridget: Really loved all of that.

Bridget: So, you know, kind of now on the wrap up part.

Mariana: Can I just say one thing?

Bridget: Yes, of course.

Mariana: The one thing that all of this has in common is listening to the customer.

Mariana: You cannot do any of this if you don’t truly understand what the customer needs are and why they’re struggling somewhere, right?

Mariana: Why can’t they take that extra bottle of shampoo?

Mariana: Why can’t they buy online?

Mariana: What’s preventing them?

Mariana: So the more we listened, the more we thought about this different ways to solve their needs.

Mariana: And I think that’s what makes us special, is that unrelentless obsession with listening to our customers and what they need.

Bridget: You know, what I think is very important, and I try very hard in my own self, is to approach your engagement with customers with humility, and not have this attitude or arrogance that you know.

Bridget: And when you allow yourself to learn and give the customer the space to tell you, either through their actions, their words or whatever, I think it goes a long way for brand success, which you cannot argue what Walmart is realizing in terms of financial success.

Bridget: Okay, so, almost wrapping this up, and you and I have not once uttered the two most common letters in our global vernacular, AI.

Bridget: Do you think we can share with the leaders on how Walmart, sorry, Walmart Mexico and Central America is leveraging AI?

Mariana: I mean, we are very bullish on AI at Walmart, as you can imagine.

Mariana: Doug McMillan, our global CEO, just named a chief AI product and UX officer, but with AI being a core part of his title, because we believe that adopting the best possible way to find solutions to problems, is the fastest way to serve our customer needs.

Mariana: So, again, with that lens of, all I want to do is solve a customer need, I have to have the best technology at my disposal to be able to do that.

Mariana: So that’s why we’re very bullish with AI, and just technology in general.

Mariana: What cool things are we doing?

Mariana: We’re exploring AI just about everywhere you would think, from day-to-day use cases, about how we triage better when something may be off within our store operations.

Mariana: We have AI-based alerts that says, hey, your sister’s store is selling more ham than you.

Mariana: Maybe you should check this three, four things out, all of that based on artificial intelligence, to how we are generating content for CRM, how we’re segmenting and fighting audiences dynamically, to be able to reach them through our CRM platforms, all the way to how we plan to remove variability from our operation.

Mariana: So I think I could just spend an hour here talking about the different ways in which we want to apply AI.

Mariana: But I think the critical piece is that our objective and our foundation is on solving a customer need, whether it’s an internal customer or an external customer, and to the extent that AI is the best tool to do that, that’s where we will focus our energy.

Mariana: It is not tech for the sake of tech or just AI for the sake of AI, which I know a lot of people like to do because it’s the next hot thing.

Mariana: It was personalization eight years ago.

Mariana: You couldn’t talk about anything without people talking about personalization.

Mariana: We want to solve customer needs, and we want to do it through the best means possible.

Mariana: And today, for the most part, AI is the fastest way to get there.

Bridget: Exactly, and I love that you gave, I mean, the use cases are going to be endless, right?

Bridget: Big, small, medium.

Bridget: And I love, again, retail is detail.

Bridget: You gave this an example around ham cells.

Bridget: So look so forward to see what more you all will do for the, really the win for the customer.

Bridget: So you’ve been very generous today, sharing with our listeners an awful lot on how Walmart is winning.

Bridget: Is there anything else you’d like to cover off?

Mariana: I mean, really just thank you for the time.

Mariana: If I had to make a point about one thing in particular, and I think you covered it, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat, is start with a customer, find that empathy, put yourselves in their shoes.

Mariana: That’s the way to loyalty.

Mariana: Really understanding a customer pain point, that is the way to gain their trust, and then consistently and continuously finding a way to solve those problems and to address their need, while staying true to your core value proposition, which for us is everyday low price, the right assortment, convenience.

Mariana: And those three things together is what should get us the customer.

Mariana: So yes, loyalty programs are important to drive engagement.

Mariana: They’re a fantastic tool.

Mariana: It’s a big part of my background.

Mariana: I’m not shaming them at all, but you have to start with delivering your initial promise to the customer.

Mariana: Whatever that may be, whether you’re in retail or travel or any other industry, it starts with that.

Bridget: Absolutely.

Bridget: Perfectly said and thank you very much.

Bridget: I’m confident our listeners are going to want to be able to contact you.

Bridget: Okay, that we suggest maybe LinkedIn or any other contact information you’d prefer they reach out?

Mariana: LinkedIn is perfect.

Mariana: They’ll find me there.

Mariana: I am quite active.

Mariana: I have opinions.

Mariana: I keep learning.

Mariana: I use LinkedIn as a platform to push myself to learn new things.

Mariana: And just lately, I had a debate with myself about value attribution.

Mariana: So if you’re into that, feel free to follow me on LinkedIn.

Bridget: That’s great.

Bridget: So we’ll include that in our show notes for our listeners.

Bridget: And so with that, Mariana, thank you.

Bridget: It is a wrap for this great podcast.

Bridget: And to our listeners, thanks for joining Mariana and me on Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV.

Bridget: Bye for now.

Paula: This show is sponsored by Wise Marketeer Group, publisher of The Wise Marketeer, the premier digital customer loyalty marketing resource for industry relevant news, insights and research.

Paula: Wise Marketeer Group also offers loyalty education and training globally through its Loyalty Academy, which has certified nearly 900 marketeers and executives in 49 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.

Paula: For global coverage of customer engagement and loyalty, check out thewisemarketeer.com and become a wiser marketeer or subscriber.

Paula: Learn more about global loyalty education for individuals or corporate training programs at loyaltyacademy.org.

Paula: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty.

Paula: If you’d like us to send you the latest shows each week, simply sign up for the Let’s Talk Loyalty newsletter on letstalkloyalty.com.

Paula: And we’ll send our best episodes straight to your inbox.

Paula: And don’t forget that you can follow Let’s Talk Loyalty on any of your favorite podcast platforms.

Paula: And of course, we’d love for you to share your feedback and reviews.

Paula: Thanks again for supporting the show.