How Walmart is repositioning itself as a tech company
When Walmart announced last week that David Gogina, its U.S. e-commerce CEO, would become CEO of its nearly $500 billion U.S. division, one thing stood out on his resume: Unlike his predecessors, Gogina has no store management experience and has never held a business role, at Walmart or elsewhere. These are two classic job requirements in retail. For example, Walmart’s incoming CEO, John Furner, who has run U.S. operations since 2019, began his career at Walmart as an hourly associate in 1993, holding roles in merchandising, operations and sourcing.
But there is another area of expertise that Guggina has a lot of experience with: e-commerce, automation, and supply chain. By positioning it at the head of a division that generates 69% of the company’s revenue, Walmart signals that it now sees itself as a technology company, in addition to being a retailer. Gogina spent eight years at Walmart, after nine years at archrival Amazon.com. In its announcement, Walmart praised Gogina’s work in building delivery capabilities to serve 95% of American households in less than three hours, and said his appointment “positions him to continue achieving our goal of becoming America’s favorite place to shop.”
In the past decade, after years of ups and downs, Walmart has emerged as a formidable player in e-commerce, with U.S. digital sales reaching nearly $100 billion annually — still far behind Amazon, but far ahead of any other American retailer. Last quarter, Walmart’s e-commerce in the US rose 27%. This was the result of billions of investments to integrate Walmart’s 4,600 stores with its e-commerce operations. This has helped the business ensure faster shipping while integrating technology more effectively into things like inventory management, supply chain, and in-store customer service. Guggina has been instrumental in these accomplishments, working under Forner, who will become Walmart Inc’s new CEO next week.
“This is a unique moment in retail,” Gogina said in a LinkedIn post about his appointment. “AI is changing the way people shop, and customer expectations are higher than ever. But no one is more prepared to usher in the next era of retail.”
The timing of Guggina’s promotion was fortuitous: It came shortly after Walmart moved its shares from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq, where tech giants like Amazon, Google and Microsoft list their shares. In December, Walmart said the move underscored its “advanced technological approach.”
Guggina isn’t the only techie to shine at Walmart. The company also named Seth Dallaire head of growth for Walmart US, accusing him of pushing Walmart US beyond traditional retail into technology-intensive lines of business — including its burgeoning advertising and media ventures and online marketplaces. Dallaire is an Instacart and Amazon veteran.
Analysts consider Walmart to be well ahead of other retailers in AI-assisted shopping. In October, it announced a partnership with OpenAI to allow shoppers to browse and purchase Walmart products directly within ChatGPT, using the built-in instant checkout feature. Last week, Walmart and Google announced their own shopping tool. Also last week, Daniel Danker, Walmart’s executive vice president of AI, product and design acceleration, suggested at a conference that the company is developing auto-ordering to replenish food staples.
Walmart’s technology boost and AI halo has had the added benefit of lifting the company’s stock: Last year, Walmart shares rose 27%, which was double the growth of the S&P 500 and beat Amazon’s 1% increase.
2026-01-21 20:04:00
