Walmart's SVP Deepak Maini: How Membership in Walmart+ Delivers Value to Engaged Shoppers

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0:50The CPG Guys: That's salesforce.com slash consumer goods. I'm Deepak Mani, the Senior Vice President and GM of Walmart Plus, and you're listening to the CPG Guys podcast. Hello and welcome to the CPG Guys podcast set at the intersection of commerce and tech. Your hosts, Sri Raja Goplin and Peter V.S. Vaughn, explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in a digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys. Hello and welcome to a very special episode of the CPG Guys podcast. I'm your East Coast co-host, PBSB. I also moonlight as head of industry and client engagement at Flywheel, the commerce acceleration division of Omnicom.

1:37The CPG Guys: I'm joined as always by my West Coast counterpart. part. He lives in La La Land near the home of my beloved Dodgers as they go for their three-peat in World Series victories. He's the chief revenue officer at Think Blue Consulting, and he goes by the nickname of Papa Raj. That is what the fans of his global pop star daughters call him. Of course, I'm referring to Rhea Raj and her younger sister, Laura Raj, who's in the K-pop band Cat's Eye. He's my BFF. He is the Thelma to my Louise. He's the man known as Sri. Sri, it is, are you getting ready to head to the airport, board the flight to Can Lions?

2:19The CPG Guys: Are you ready to go hobnob on the Riviera, say, hey, Rosé, and all that kind of stuff? And then you get back and no rest for the weary, we're heading up to Cornell for the Omnicommerce leadership program that we're producing. What's going on, man? Now, you must be crazy. You've jumped four weeks ahead of the curve, Peter. The time of this recording, I got one sole purpose, one trip to make this weekend. That is to Las Vegas. Catsaw and Lara are nominated for three American Music Awards. The AMAs, you know, between being nominees for new artists to the year, Breakthrough Pop Artist, Best Music Video for LARLEE.

2:56The CPG Guys: I have a hunch they may win one. So let's see. I'm hoping that they win one. And we have a Moon Man at home already. We have the Grammy acknowledgement of the two nominees. I can't wait to put that on the metal piece. And then, Peter, from there, grocery lab with FMI. Then we've got Nielsen C360, where you and I will be on the main stage closing. And then we get to all the way to France for rosé champagne boat trips. But more importantly, we've got a lot of programming content. Looking forward to going to see Mark Pritchard with Walmart Connect, actually. Can't wait to do that at their location at Le Majestic.

3:33The CPG Guys: So we got our hands full, Peter, if anything. But I got one purpose this weekend. I know you're going to go watch your daughter win an award. I think that'll be great. Thanks, as always, Sri, for joining us. Before we get to our special guest, I want to remind our audience to follow us on their favorite podcast platform, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, whatever. Sri, do you know that YouTube is now the most popular platform for listening to podcasts? It has surpassed Apple. I would like for you to say MySpace. Why do you not refer to MySpace anymore? Well, I know. Should we take down our MySpace page or we keep that going?

4:11The CPG Guys: What was that club thing back in May 2020 that you and I really wanted to be on? Oh my God. A clubhouse, yes, where people dialed into a phone number. It was basically like a conference call. We gave it a good shot, Sri. It was a flash in the pan. But if you use Apple or Spotify in particular, we really need you to give us a star rating. Fives are by Sheree. You like the number five, don't you? Five is your favorite number. Sheree's favorite number is five. If you give us a nice rating, it helps make our podcast more findable by industry contemporaries who are looking to be educated and entertained by the content we are producing.

4:48The CPG Guys: So please go to the app store while you're listening to us. Just open it up. Go to the app, go to the show, scroll down and give it a star rating. All right. Today, the CPG guys are joined by one of the most consequential executives shaping the future of omni-channel commerce and consumer loyalty in retail. Deepak Mani, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Walmart Plus. He leads the membership program that has quietly become Amazon Prime's most formidable challenger. Under his leadership, Walmart Plus has expanded its value proposition far beyond free delivery, adding free pharmacy delivery, a Peacock streaming solution, and a co-branded credit card offering 5 % cash back on all Walmart purchases at$98 a year versus the competitors, well, significantly more.

5:37The CPG Guys: The value equation is increasingly hard to ignore. Pleased to say both Sheree and I subscribed the day Walmart Plus was opened up to the marketplace. Sheree and I were pioneers in getting that done, so we're big fans. He came to Walmart from Amazon, which tells you everything about his digital commerce pedigree. At Amazon, he held key leadership positions, including director of product development for Amazon Music, overseeing live streaming products. Before leading Walmart Plus, he served as vice president and general manager of customer digital identity and data platform at Walmart, where he defined the vision and product strategy for new in-store and online identity experiences, building cross-functional teams, spanning product management, data science, technical product management, and privacy.

6:26The CPG Guys: For brands and manufacturers thinking about where the next wave of membership-driven commerce is headed, today's conversation is a must-listen discussion. Deepak, welcome to the CPT, guys. How are you doing? I'm doing well. Thank you for having me. Excited about the conversation. We are, as I mentioned to you before we got the show started, we've had many a guest from your colleagues in Walmart Connect and also in Walmart Data Ventures. The area that was missing is Walmart Plus. As I mentioned to you, it's the three-leg stool. So we're glad to have you here to balance it all out and give us your perspective on how you are, how you're driving loyalty through your membership program.

7:09The CPG Guys: To our audience, please toggle over to the digital show notes of this episode. You're going to find links to Deepak's LinkedIn profile, the Walmart LinkedIn page, and Walmart Plus corporate site to learn more about our guests as our conversation unfolds. So I'm going to kick it off. Let's just start at some of the foundationals here. Walmart Plus has grown from three benefits that launched a number of years ago to 12 today, but still at the same rate you were charging,$98 a year. How does that expanding benefit stack change the behavior of Walmart Plus members in ways that matter, particularly to the CPJ brand partners in terms of basket size, purchase frequency, and category loyalty?

7:57Yeah. So Walmart Plus launched almost six years ago as an extension of Walmart's mission to help people save money and live better. So everything we do starts with our member. We want to work to make, add new benefits, create new ways in which we can add convenience to their life. We know that membership and the loyalty that it creates makes the entire ecosystem better. It helps us create better experiences and at the same time help suppliers and brands understand customer needs better, show up in relevant moments, and grow with Walmart. So with Walmart Plus, we have, so as you said, we have launched a lot of benefits.

8:44But what we know is that when they engage with these benefits, multiple benefits, the way that they experience Walmart changes. Their relationship with us changes, their shopping behavior changes. And more specifically, the frequency with which they shop with us changes completely. So we know that members shop three times more frequently than non-members, with seven times more e-commerce visits and twice as many in-store visits. They shop cross categories, and they shop in ways in which the way we understand them changes and it improves. And that improves efficiency, unlocks relevance, and makes everything more valuable, both for us and members.

9:29The way this matters to CPG is as follows, because frequency is everything, if you ask me. With more frequency, there are ways to serve the customer. When there are more ways to serve the customer, there are more ways to better understand their needs. And when we can understand their needs better, we can help brands and suppliers make better decisions, whether it's about assortment, promotion, and media. And we know that we take all these signals, the increased signals that we get, and the Walmart ecosystem can turn these commerce signals into better insights, into more relevant experiences, and more measurable business outcomes for our brand partners through platforms such as Data Ventures and Walmart Connect.

10:18And what that means for CPG brands and suppliers is that there are more ways in which they can show up in relevant journeys, the ways in which our members are engaging with us, whether that's in a weekly basket for replenishment, whether it is a seasonal find, whether it is discovering things through multiple channels online as well as offline. So in summary, all that does is it creates a relationship with customer that's more predictable, more frequent, and more valuable for both Walmart and our brand partners.

10:53The CPG Guys: No doubt about that whatsoever, Deepak. Well, first of all, welcome to the CPG guys for the special C-suite series leading up to episode 600 and beyond. So the question I have for you, Deepak, is Walmart reaches about 150 million plus shoppers every week across e-commerce, 4 ,600 plus stores approximately. And the data is mapped all the way down to the SKU level. How does Walmart plus membership amplify the quality and fidelity of that first-party data signal, especially given your rich background working with data as well as with the consumer level information? and how should CPG brands, you kind of alluded to it a little bit, be thinking about activating against it differently than what they do with non-member data?

11:40Yeah, let me speak from the member lens. As I said, members shop more frequently with us. So as they shop both in store and online, that creates better understanding of their behavior over time. And that helps us create better benefits and better experiences. that in turn creates more opportunities to create engagement, retention, and over time that engagement drives into more experiences and better ways in which we can serve them. Now, that essentially is a flywheel within which membership sits right in the middle of it. And in this equation, as the engagement improves, as members shop with us more, it creates more opportunities for everybody, including our brands and supplier partners.

12:24And as I said earlier, it helps us create better insights for brands and suppliers. It helps us make better decisions about how we serve them and allows us to get these new connections formed between customers and brands that are useful, valuable, and grounded in real omni-channel data that we have. Now, in all of this, the app plays an important role. We know that as we are driving adoption of the app with our member population, we know that the app sits right in the middle of everything and it turns identity into seamless and intuitive experiences. It's where relevant skills and discovery becomes easier.

13:07And we know that members retain two times better digitally year over year than non-members. And that means a predictable, more persistent relationship between us and our members. So what does that mean for our CPG partners? It means that there are more opportunities for them to serve the customer and understand their missions. Now, this could mean showing up at the right moment with the right solution, right offer, right product at the right time. It could be helping members discover value, assortment, or benefits that they may have not considered in the past. It could also mean removing friction from their everyday experience, whether it's a replenishment or repeat purchase.

13:52But overall, it means just making the experience more seamless and intuitive, which strengthens the brand connection between the member and customer at Walmart, as well as the supplier and the brand. But the North Star that I keep in mind is that the customer experience is we need to focus on. It's like we need to make the customer experience of the best so that we're creating more value for our customers and in turn, creating more opportunities for both Walmart and brands to serve that and create measurable and valued outcomes for both of them. So that's how we bring it all together with our member of Shopping Frequently with us.

14:36The CPG Guys: wow that's terrific i was looking through all the benefits and i it really dawned on me how much i'm i'm already using beyond obviously the delivery there's a burger king on the way home from my daughter's school it's a frequent stopping point for us so ordering digitally and get sick getting savings off the burger king order is phenomenal i just switched my service from that you have the option with walmart plus to have streaming from peacock or from paramount i just switched from Paramount to Peacock. So I take advantage of that. It is such a wonderful service. Shree, did you know that they have free online pet care as part of this?

15:15The CPG Guys: Are you looking after Bala? You can have on-demand, 24-7 access to a vet in case anything happens to poor little Bala. Always service there. It's PawPet Pet Deli Health. Okay, good. Okay. And don't forget, Don't forget another important piece, the fuel discounts. Oh, the fuel discounts are good. Yeah, you need those. You desperately need those right now. Deepak, now I want to dig a little bit into your recent past and work you've done prior to joining Walmart+. Before running Walmart +, you led the vice president general manager role for the customer digital identity and data platform at Walmart.

15:53The CPG Guys: So how does a logged in identified Walmart Plus member change the economics of the digital shelf for CPG brands, particularly as agentic commerce in the form of Sparky and AI powered discovery reshape how shoppers find products? Yeah. So when I was asked to lead the customer data and identity platform, the challenge was how do we solve for omni channel identity at Walmart scale? So when a member or a customer is anonymous, we have to rely on limited signal to create the experience, whether that is a search query, a category interest, or a contextual signal that we have, or a broader audience signal.

16:36Now, those matter. They help us make the transaction go smoothly and help us in that transaction in the moment. But when you have logged in member behavior information, then you can go back in time and you can understand how the behavior has been evolving. How is their category interest has been evolving? How is their need for convenience is changing? How is their basket evolving? So there are richer questions that you can ask and you can use that to create better and relevant experiences. Now, this matters immensely as we move forward in the evolution that we're going through with agentic commerce.

17:14And a framework that I use and I can talk about is that there are certain ways in which consumers and customers have always behaved. And how does that move across different technology stacks? So for example, when consumers walk into our store, they may have an idea of a product in their mind and they have a high intent for that. and they walk right to the aisle where they can find the product, they look at that product, or perhaps something similar around it, and then they pick and they make a decision and they move on. But in that journey, they may be interested in something else, something that catches their eye, that could be a seasonal aisle or an end cap, or something that drives this discovery behavior, and they may pick that and that turns into a basket.

17:59So that's the basket building behavior. Now, the same framework you can take to visual app-based or web-based experiences where people have high intent and they would go perform a search, look for items, decide something that they want to buy. But there are other services where we help them discover things that they may not have previously thought or may have not previously considered. These are homepage, category pages, et cetera. Now, if we take the same model, we can apply that to an agentic world where people still have high intent missions and they may want to search things in a different way within an agent.

18:38And they're asking for an agent's help to help them create the basket. Perhaps they're looking for recommendations, alternatives, substitutes, and they want to get to building their baskets quickly. So perhaps the benefit to the consumer is in reduced amount of time that they need to build that basket or reduction of cognitive load. They're offloading some of that work to the agent. So those experiences, in my perspective, in my view, would start to become more prevalent. But there are also these other ways in which people want to discover things in a natural language interface. Like the ways in which they can interact with an agent, they can write queries, they can have a back and forth conversation.

19:20They may decide to use other modalities, like they could have voice-based interaction, they could have a photo of a product that they're looking for. In those cases, too, the agent can help them discover things, make connections that maybe were not possible before. Now, if you look at all these three technologies and how consumers have been changing with the same behavior, but across applied to different technology stacks, the foundation of a logged in user is super important in this because that allows us to make better decisions and better and more relevant experiences. And the way it works is the more relevant the experience is, the deeper the engagement.

20:01And that creates this flywheel where consumer see the value, the brand see the value. And as a result of it, the experience gets better, more engaging. And we see that, you know, help our consumer and help brands and Walmart at the same time.

20:15The CPG Guys: Hey, Deepak, that was awesome. So I'm going to know where my ex-brand hat coming from the CPG universe that I spent three decades at. And one of the questions that stop a mind for CPG is the, and of course the audience listening in, is when brand partners think about their joint value creation with Walmart, you know, erstwhile we'd say the word JVP, how should they be wading Walmart plus member households versus non-member households in their investment strategies? And then is the gap in like a consumer lifetime value as dramatic at what your major online competition is seen with their loyalty subscription program?

20:56So the way like I wouldn't think in terms of member versus non-member here, like Walmart operates as an enormous scale. You may have heard this before, but Walmart can deliver to 95 percent of households within three hours. and increasingly we can also deliver to 60 % of American households in 30 minutes or less. So for that scale, the real question is how do we work with how brands and suppliers can work with the Walmart ecosystem to understand the missions that our members have or customers have and how are they evolving and how can they deeply understand that and create value for valuable experiences in that process.

21:38What Walmart Plus does enough, as I mentioned earlier, it is a growth and a frequency driver. So it creates more opportunity, it creates a durable and stronger signal that can be used to create better experiences. So within the Walmart ecosystem, Walmart Centella helps create or provide better insights on item level, customer level, and category level insights. Walmart Connect can enable activation and measurement of full funnel media. And then Walmart Plus helps create loyalty and deeper engagement that makes the entire ecosystem stronger. So that's the lens through which I think it would be the right way to think in terms of how to activate on Walmart.

22:25The CPG Guys: So I referenced earlier that I was moving my streaming option from Paramount to Peacock. The addition of Peacock to Walmart Plus streaming choices drove a record number of signups in Q3 of last year. By the way, shout out to our friend Bob Perry at NBCUniversally. He's a great friend of the podcast, and we're going to be doing a little event with him this fall at 30 Rock. But what does entertainment engagement tell you about a members' overall relationship to the Walmart ecosystem? And does streaming behavior surface any insights that CPG partners can really act on? Yeah, so let me set the context of how we think about Walmart Plus, and then I can answer this question better.

23:16So we think of Walmart Plus as not as a rewards program, not as a marketing product. We know that our ambition is to be so consistently useful to our members that choosing us first is no longer a decision. And our ambition as a result of that is to become the most essential membership for our customers. And because we know that loyalty is increasingly is part of someone's habit. It's about frequency. It's about relevance. It's about being embedded in their everyday life. So that's how we think about Walmart Plus. So at its simplest, Walmart Plus is designed to deliver convenience and value across moments that matter most in our member's life.

24:04And we know that people don't, or members don't live in verticals. They don't wake up in the morning and think that, oh, I have a grocery moment now, or now I have an entertainment moment, or now I have a fuel moment. We know that they have messy, real moments. And our job is to remove friction from all of them. And that's why we think of Walmart Plus as this embedded system of value that can create, that can help them, you know, across their daily life, weekly life, and we can show up in different ways and be valuable to them. Now, let me make it more real. Let me give you an example of how this comes to life.

24:42think about a busy mom and she is planning a trip and she uses our travel benefit powered by Expedia to book that trip and as a result of that she gets Walmart cash that she can apply on items that she may need as she for as she stocks up for her visit for a trip then before she they leave they place an express delivery order to get everything they need for the trip And that avoids them adding another stop on a day that's already very busy. On the way, they fill up at one of our participating 13 ,000 gas stations to save money as part of the membership program again. Now, on the journey, as our kids get bored and they're looking for some entertainment, they have the option or she has the option of choosing Peacock or Paramount Plus as our streaming benefit.

25:33And then she saves money there as well. In the evening, as they get hungry, they drive through Burger King and get discount on meals. And that is another benefit of being a member. When she gets there, she realizes that she has forgotten her child's medicine. What would be a major inconvenience otherwise now is not a problem because she gets free pharmacy delivery as part of Walmart Plus membership. And so she gets that delivered and the problem is solved. Now, she does all of that with the one-pay cash rewards card that gives 5 % cash back on every Walmart purchase. So she saves there too. So essentially, all of these benefits, of course, they are important and they work individually.

26:17But the real magic is when they come all together and they create this embedded system where different parts of her daily life, weekly life, we are there to create value and make her life and our members life a little bit easier so that's how we think about it and streaming of course is part of that as you meant as you mentioned peter so my uh we have like question of how what cpg partners can can get out of that is like the way we think about it is we put customer and member in the middle of everything we do and we want to create a system of moments of everyday value. And we believe that the future of loyalty belongs to brands that are working to solve the problems of everyday life and create those moments that add up to create a great experience.

27:08The CPG Guys: Moments that matter. We can't under-emphasize the importance of the pharmacy service when you've got two or three kids, the daunting thought of having to get them out of the car and into a store to go pick up the medicine and put them back is just something that all parents dread. And it's so great that the delivery service for pharmacy is included in Walmart Plus. I'll remind our audience that today we're speaking with Deepak Mani. He is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Walmart Plus. Sri, over to you. Yeah, Deepak, I was looking at publicly available data from the latest earnings release that's public at this point.

27:47The CPG Guys: We noticed that Walmart Connect grew approximately 33 or so percent in the U.S. last quarter. Seth had kind of stated that, representing along with membership fees, about a third of Walmart's operating income, again, publicly available. How tight is the integration between Walmart plus membership data, the Walmart Connect advertising platform? And then if I'm a brand, what does that mean when I'm trying to close the loop from impressions on Walmart Connect to the actual lower funnel activation and sale in-store? Yeah, so it's the entire ecosystem here. And all of these parts come together to make a whole.

28:24So as you said, Centella or Data Ventures provide great insights on customer behavior, whether it's customer level, item level, category level, and they create insights that can be activated by using Walmart Connect platform, which provides full funnel media activations with closed loop measurement. And so I'll let the data ventures and Connect team talk about their products and how they're using that and building that. But powering this flywheel is membership and the frequency and the purchase frequency and visit frequency we get from our members, essentially. And as I said, members shop three times more frequently than non-members with seven times more e-commerce visits.

29:08So that translates to more opportunities, and more, as I said, stronger and durable signal that we can use to create great experiences for our members. So when it all comes together, essentially it works like a flywheel, where better frequency or increased frequency gives us more opportunities to serve. When we get more opportunities to serve, we can create better experiences that drives engagement. With those engagement, we get better insights, and those insights can be used to activate and create better connections between members and brands and create those moments, everyday moments where members get value as well as brands create valuable, measurable business outcomes.

29:50So that's the whole flywheel that it enables and membership sits right in the middle of it.

29:59All right.

30:00The CPG Guys: Walmart tested its first advertising formats tied to the Sparky AI shopping agent in the fall of 2025, with 81 % of surveyed Walmart customers saying they'd used Sparky to check product availability, review specs before buying. How do you think Walmart plus membership is a foundation for agentic shopping? And what does that mean for how CPG brands show up in those AI-mediated discovery moments? Right. So agentic commerce, it's all about trust, context, and continuity. And those are relationship attributes. And membership is all about relationship. So they kind of go hand in hand and they work together.

30:47So, but as I mentioned earlier, with agentic commerce, the ways in which people have always behaved, those will continue to persist. but the different technology will make things better in different ways. And the point about natural language interface is a key one here, where members or consumers, as they're interacting with the agent, or the agent is interacting or acting on their behalf, they're able to start with problems that they're looking to solve for, not necessarily a solution that they have in mind. Of course, there will be times when they're looking for a solution directly, but there are times when they have a problem they're looking to solve, And it's a back and forth between the member and the agent.

31:30In those cases, I think the kind of content that brands, CPG brands create become important. And perhaps there's a change in which it or way in which evolves. Like with search engines and search queries, there's a certain type of content they create that is useful. Whether it's product description, it's imagery, there's other details that they provide. But when the model changes more into a back and forth Q &A, maybe there is a way to anticipate those questions and understand those and provide content that could be useful for the ecosystem, for the agent to understand so that the agent can act on behalf of the consumer.

32:10So those are the kind of things, in my view, in my perspective, that will change, that will evolve. And with membership, the role that membership plays is that a logged in member gives us a trusted relationship that lasts, not just in the moment that has been there, and that you have a better understanding or deeper understanding of their needs and how it is evolving. So you overlaid that on top of how the commerce relationship is evolving. I think those things kind of come together really well with membership playing an important role to mediate that consumer experiences.

32:48The CPG Guys: The one thing I'll certainly say is AI is here to stay. And it's great to see that you all are right on top of that and understanding the difference between agentic AI and just AI available. commonly in the marketplace today. And shopping, certainly, consumers are on AI, hunting everything from deals, bundles, meal kits, and whatnot. So you're right in the middle of all that on top of it, to be fair. Another thing in the publicly shared data we noticed was the highlight of gains with upper-income households as a strategic priority. Does Walmart Plus actually, in its memberships skew towards those households?

33:28The CPG Guys: And if so, what does that mean for premium CPG brands that may have historically underinvested at Walmart and should be thinking hard now about how they can actually reach those households with such a large distribution opportunity for them, both in-store and online? Yeah, so Walmart Plus represents the entire spectrum of Walmart customers, And it is well representative across all cohorts, income groups, demographics, family size, etc. So the broader appeal is across all income cohorts. And that's an exciting place to be. And increasingly, what we are seeing is that convenience is a key driver here.

34:11So we know that people, consumers, when asked, they value convenience more than they in the past. And we know that more than half of the consumers answer that way. And Walmart Plus is situated right there to meet that need, to provide convenience at great prices that Walmart has to offer. So we know that we are working and serving the needs of customers from all income groups. Now, this idea that Walmart is not a place for premium brands, I would challenge the CPG brands and anybody who has that idea to revisit it. Because increasingly, we know that Walmart is an omni-channel platform. We can serve 95 % of American households within three hours and 60 % of households within 30 minutes.

34:59So we are able to do things for all income cohorts. So I think this challenge has to be revisited because it's a great place for premium brands to thrive and connect. And it could show up in different places. Like these premium brands can show up in a weekly grocery basket, where it can show up in a health and wellness mission, or they can show up in a beauty regimen or routine, or better for you, food discovery items. So there are a lot of different places where premium brands can thrive on Walmart platform. So increasingly, we know that we are providing different choices rooted in convenience, and our physical proximity plays an important role in that.

35:41We can serve our customers however they want, so we provide choices to them. If they want to walk into our store and shop that way because it fits better into their routine, they can do that. Or if they want to drive to curbside and have us load the groceries and other items in the back of their trunk, they can do that. or if they want us to deliver to them and deliver to their doorstep, as well as, you know, with our in-home service in their fridge or garage, we can do that. So we provide a number of options and choices that resonate with people from all income groups.

36:14The CPG Guys: Terrific. I want to also go back a little bit to your time at Amazon, where you had the experience of running Fire TV, Alexa Skills, Amazon Music. Those are all businesses that basically live at the intersection of media, identity, and commerce. From that experience, what are you bringing that is really directly shaping how you are enhancing Walmart Plus going forward? What did you learn that you really think is going to work well in terms of adapting Walmart Plus for Walmart shoppers? so the common through line in in the things that i've worked on in the past is that i have worked at the intersection of commerce media and customer behavior slash data and that continues to drive what i'm doing but the unique thing of working at walmart is the the role walmart plays in our customers everyday life and that scale and that that opportunity is really exciting the way i've always approach my work is through a scientific rigor, take a very experimental approach.

37:20And for me, the experimental mindset is important. And one framework I use to look at opportunities that we're working on, new experiences, for example, we're building, et cetera, is that we look at the uncertainty of something and the reward or the magnitude of impact something is going to have if it works. So we look at all the opportunities and we put that in this framework and we decide what we pursue and what we don't pursue. But if the things that are going to have impact, but we think it's certain that we will have the risk is low, then we just go do those things. But in some cases, if the impact is going to be low and the uncertainty is low too, then we don't want to do it.

38:05So the thing that I'm really passionate about are the things that we focus a lot on is things that are highly uncertain and they if they work they will have large impact on on that so we take the scientific rigor to everything we do and that's something that i bring from like you know my education and i've always worked and built uh platforms and customer experiences in the past and so we have we continue to apply that uh we're focused on creating more choice and more options for our customers and you mentioned with streaming we provide that choice We also provide that choice with our fulfillment services.

38:39So we're always thinking about how we do things differently. How do we create unique, differentiated experiences for our members? And we'll continue to iterate and we'll continue to get better.

38:52The CPG Guys: You know, I'm going to reflect back on when we first had Seth on the show. It was May 18, 2022. It's been, give or take, four years at this point. Walmart Plus was just one year old at that point. And now we look back, it's like the five-year anniversary is already here. Now, if you fast forward another five years, Deepak, what is the relationship between Walmart plus membership and CPG brand investments look like? AI is going to be squarely leading the way for a lot of us as consumers. And what should brand and agency leaders be doing right now to position themselves for the future? Remember that AI will also help make the whole creative experience, the optimization of their investment dollars, all of that feasible.

39:36Yeah, so let me start by saying what will not change. So like we are driven by Walmart's mission, which is to help people save money and live better. That will stay the same. And we also know that people care about convenience, people care about assortment, people care about value. Those things will continue to be a North Star, they'll continue to stay the same. But things will change as you know, consumers behave behavior changes and their expectations change. from my perspective, I think there are a few things that would change or will continue to keep an eye on as they're evolving. One is that, and specifically for the CPG partners and suppliers, that as the world becomes more personalized and more agent-assisted, the importance of awareness and visibility will always be there.

40:21But beyond that, I think there would be customer expectations around trust, relevance, utility, and performance that will increasingly get bigger and bigger. So that's one change. The second thing is, consumers are going to be looking to, as a cell, looking to solve problems. So they will show up to these platforms with certain problems in mind. And this means how we anticipate those needs and create information that can be understood by agents as well as by consumers to solve those problems. So I think that would be another way in the world is going to evolve. And then finally, I think as these new technologies evolve and the consumer experiences evolve as well, the brands that serve, as I said, their everyday needs the best.

41:09And they are working to create information that is well and easily understood and it's valuable to consumer as well as to agents. They will have a way to create additional value or more value than others. So I think those are some ways in which things are going to evolve. And Walmart Place will continue to play an important role in all of that because we'll continue to create, you know, work on our mission, which is to be America's most essential membership for our customers and meet their, you know, everyday needs and continue to create more value. And we'll continue to iterate on that experience and we'll continue to make it better.

41:47The CPG Guys: Wonderful way to close that out to our audience. We are incredibly grateful for the fact that you turned to us for education and entertainment in the areas of commerce and technology. Over 45 ,000 followers to date on LinkedIn tells us at least that our community is pretty strong. We appreciate everyone who likes comments on rates, all of the content we produce for LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, X, wherever you choose to engage with us. Sri, this was really helpful, and I'm so glad we finally got the third leg of the stool out to our audience to hear what Walmart Plus is all about.

42:28The CPG Guys: What's your big takeaway today? Peter, a couple of things stood out in my mind. I don't think the discussion on the upper income shopper, the 125K plus, whatever that number is publicly declared, is often heard enough by premium CPG brands. We kind of addressed it head on today. That's very, very, very important because even now in my daily business, Peter, when you and I talk to the industry a whole lot, I don't think brands have cracked that code of, I need to partner with Walmart when it comes to having the right sort of solutions in store and online. The second that points us in the face repeatedly again and again and again and again, is just the reach.

43:07The CPG Guys: Super Bowl every day. That's what Walmart Connect is. Literally, Super Bowl every day online. Now think of that for a second, Peter, because traditional agency wisdom and advice would say, if you've got big enough a budget, Super Bowl should be a first choice for the reach. But here you have Super Bowl every day. What should you do if you're an agency? Like, take a minute to ponder. And of course, Peter, not to mention all the benefits we've you talked about, including your visit to Burger King. Mine is going to be pet care, telehealth. Bala is eternally grateful for that, Sri. Yeah, for me, it's the fact that while they should not necessarily be positioned as benefits, they are part of what the Walmart membership experience is all about.

43:56The CPG Guys: These enable, as Deepak said, moments that matter to resonate in their relationship with Walmart. And back to your point on the economics and the income that people who shop at Walmart are, you know, you don't even need to look at the income breakdown. Just drive into a Walmart and see the cars that are parked in the parking lot. You have everything from an economy car to a very expensive foreign SUV. Everyone shops at Walmart because at the end of the day, everybody wants value. Everybody wants value. So absolutely. Thank you for that, Sri. That was great. Deepak, thank you for taking time out of your day today to come on the CPG Guys and tell us all the great stuff that's going on at Walmart Plus.

44:45The CPG Guys: And we wish you continued success. Thanks for joining us. thank you for having me it was great talking to you and good luck that's all we have for you today we hope you see you if you're in can make sure you reach out to the CPG guys let us know you're going to be there and hopefully we'll see some of you at Cornell Omnicommerce and of course the Nielsen C360 conference is coming up we look forward to continuing our community conversation on the next episode of the CPG guys podcast goodbye Thank you.

45:48The CPG Guys: subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPG Guys LLC. The views expressed by guests are their own, and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. The views expressed by CPG Guys LLC do not represent the views of their employers or the entity they represent. CBT Guys LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we present in this podcast.