You may be a little unfamiliar with Wal-Mart payment, but it is actually the same as the most commonly used scan code payment in China. Apple Pay relies primarily on contactless NFC functionality, requiring users to tap their iPhone or Apple Watch at a payment terminal, while Walmart Pay relies on QR codes.

It may be difficult to decide which is more secure and convenient to discuss NFC air payment and scan code payment, but American users do prefer Apple Pay to Walmart Pay. Of course, Walmart is also trying to justify Walmart Pay over Apple Pay.

The industry believes that Kroger’s final choice to support Apple Pay may greatly influence Walmart’s decision. Most shoppers on Twitter are complaining about this, especially users who are keen to use Apple Pay.

Of course, Walmart is not the only boycotting Apple Pay in the United States. Well-known chain stores such as Home Depot and HEB also do not support it, but in terms of scale, Wal-Mart is still the largest Apple Pay boycott in the United States so far.

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Now, the company has launched a new TV box that basically brings the same experience as Google TV’s Chromecast, but at less than half the price, only $20, while The 4K model of Google’s Chromecast is $50.

The new model looks a lot like the version Walmart debuted in 2021, but it has an updated design with a slightly larger body and more rounded corners.

In addition, the processor inside has also been updated, the chip has added support for hard-decoding AV1, and the software has been switched from Android TV to Google TV, which means that its user UI interface should be almost the same as Google Chromecast.

Of course, the remote for the Walmart onn Google TV 4K is a little different than the Chromecast because it has a lot more buttons, including a channel change button and four shortcut keys.

▲ Google Chromecast

It is worth mentioning that although the software of this box is not weaker than competing products, it is hard to say that the hardware is the same. For starters, it only supports WiFi 5 and only has 2GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. Also, it features a micro USB charging port instead of USB-C.

Beyond that, it lacks support for features like Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, and has limited support for HDR content, according to 9to5Google.

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The announcement comes on the heels of Walmart joining Volkswagen’s Electrify America program, which is currently one of the largest open public electric vehicle charging networks in the United States. To date, Walmart has deployed nearly 1,300 fast-charging stations across the United States.

Walmart has more than 5,000 branded stores and Sam’s Clubs across the United States. According to statistics, about 90 percent of Americans live within 10 miles (about 16 kilometers) of one of these stores.

Vishal Kapadia, Walmart’s recently appointed senior vice president of energy transformation, said in an interview, “We have the ability to solve the electric vehicle range and charging anxiety problem like no other company in the U.S.”

The U.S. electric vehicle charging infrastructure is currently growing rapidly, but there are widespread concerns about the lack of uptime, performance, convenience and high set-up costs of charging posts.

Walmart’s choice to build its own charging stations, rather than partner with other operators, will help address reliability and cost issues, Kapadia said.

Kapadia expects that the new charging stations will be fitted with DC fast charging posts, with an average of about four posts deployed per store.

Walmart declined to comment on the financial details and said it was looking for a supplier.

There are currently about 30,000 fast chargers across the U.S. that can fully charge an electric car in an hour or less. Some of these high-powered fast-charging piles cost more than $100,000.

While there are still not many electric cars on the road in the U.S., that’s changing as gas prices remain high, subsidies for electric cars increase and new, less expensive electric cars are coming to market.

Market consulting firm AutoForecast Solutions predicts that electric vehicles will account for about one-third of the North American market by 2029.

The U.S. president has previously pledged to build a network of 500,000 public charging stations by 2030. In February, the White House announced new federal subsidies totaling $7.5 billion (currently about 51.6 billion yuan) to promote the development of the electric vehicle industry and infrastructure, including the construction of charging stations along U.S. highways.

Walmart will soon start the charging station project and will consider applying for federal subsidies at a later date, Kapadia said.

According to statistics, about 240 million consumers visit Wal-Mart stores every week. These new charging stations will also provide Wal-Mart with more data on how shoppers pay or how long they stay at a particular store.

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In an internal email sent to employees, Walmart Global Technology, Walmart’s division responsible for technology and software engineering, said it previously blocked ChatGPT for a period of time “after noticing activity that posed a risk to the company.” “Subsequently, we took the time to evaluate and develop a set of guidelines on the use of generative AI systems and have now opened up the use of ChatGPT across Walmart’s internal network.”

A Walmart spokesperson did not respond as to when the company blocked ChatGPT and what the nature of the allegedly risky activity was, saying only in a statement, “Most new technologies can both bring new help and create new risk. It’s a common move for us to evaluate these new technologies and provide guidelines to our associates on their use.”

In the new guidelines, Walmart tells employees that they should “avoid entering any sensitive, confidential or proprietary information” into ChatGPT, such as financial information, strategic information, and personal information about shoppers and employees. The email also said that employees “should not enter any information about Walmart’s business, including business processes, policies or strategies, into these tools.”

The email said Wal-Mart employees must evaluate the output of these systems before accepting information from them. Employees should not cut or copy software code into these tools, nor should they use them to write new code.

According to the email, “Entering Wal-Mart information into these tools could expose the company, could violate confidentiality agreements and could seriously compromise our rights to the code, products, information or content. Every employee is responsible for using and protecting Walmart’s data in the right way.”

At the end of the email, Walmart said that ChatGPT “can improve efficiency and bring innovation,” but that these generative AI tools must be used in an “appropriate manner.”

Recently, companies like Amazon and Microsoft have issued similar warnings to employees about entering confidential information into ChatGPT.

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Walmart said in an internal notice to employees that starting next month, the starting salary for American workers in Walmart stores and warehouses will increase from $12 an hour (currently about 81 RMB) to at least $14 ( Currently about 95 RMB).

For comparison, Walmart competitors including Amazon.com (Amazon) and Target (TGT) have a minimum wage of $15 per hour (currently about 102 RMB).

U.S. media pointed out that these changes are the latest in a series of pay raises Walmart has made to close the gap with its competitors. A Walmart spokesman said the average hourly wage for Walmart hourly workers is currently about $17 (currently about 115 RMB).

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Walmart wants to bring in strategic investors for Flipkart, but it’s not resistant to large pure-play investment firms either, people familiar with the matter said. For the latest round of funding, Walmart has not yet formally authorized investment bankers to look for strategic investors and larger global investors.

Flipkart is now valued at more than $40 billion, having raised $3.6 billion last year, when it was valued at about $37.6 billion. A Walmart press release responded, “We don’t comment on speculation.”

Walmart invested about $16 billion in Flipkart in 2018, taking a 77% stake, and at the end of 2018 Walmart said it might take Flipkart public within four years. It was reported in April that Flipkart had internally raised its IPO valuation target by a third to $60-70 billion, and that Flipkart would not go public this year; it was aiming to hit the U.S. stock market in 2023.

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Walmart is already doing a big direct carry on TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. Not only that, Walmart has partnered with Meredith, Parents, and Better Homes & Gardens to create vegan recipes, and it has launched an AR tool on Pinterest to help consumers pick furniture and decor.

William White, Walmart’s chief marketing officer, said Walmart is considering entering the meta-universe and will continue to go deeper in the future, and Roblox is just the experimental field.

He explained that the newly designed metaverse experience takes the next generation of shoppers into account, especially Generation Z, which is about 25 years old or younger.

Walmart hopes to learn something new from the partnership. White admitted that Walmart is not making money on the meta-universe side now, but will in the future.

At the beginning of the year, Walmart had applied for metaverse-related trademarks, some of which implied that Walmart wanted to make and sell virtual goods, offer virtual currency to users, and also involve NFT.

Roblox currently has a market cap of about $21.2 billion, but shares have fallen 60% this year. As the number of Roblox users grows, more and more retailers and brands are entering.

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Canoo would not disclose the financial terms of the deal. However, a spokeswoman revealed that these are binding advance orders, starting with the Canoo brand of “lifestyle delivery vehicles. Under the agreement, Walmart has an option to purchase 10,000 vehicles. Initially, Walmart will use some of the pre-production electric vehicles to deliver online orders in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, which Canoo will use as a test bed to refine and finalize vehicle configurations in the coming weeks. The lifestyle delivery vehicle, or LDV, is expected to enter production in the fourth quarter of 2022 and be on the road in 2023, according to Canoo.

Canoo’s LDV is built on a versatile platform architecture that incorporates an electric motor, battery module, and other drive components. The customizable vehicles are ergonomic, have approximately 120 cubic feet of cargo space, and are more cost-effective than other delivery vehicles currently on the market. Canoo electric vehicles will be used by Walmart workers to deliver online orders. According to the companies, the electric vehicles may also be used in Walmart GoLocal, the retailer’s delivery service business.

Canoo is just one potential link in Walmart’s increasingly complex delivery system, which utilizes independent contractors, its own employees, third-party delivery services and more future technologies, such as electric vehicles and drones, to meet consumer demand for immediate access to goods. Walmart has a pilot program with AV startup Gatik, which uses self-driving box trucks to deliver goods from its fulfillment centers to nearby stores. The retail giant is also working with drone companies Zipline and DroneUp.

Walmart says it can now offer same-day delivery of a growing variety of goods to 80 percent of the U.S. population.

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This partnership had spanned more than 2,800 Walmart Vision Centers and 550 Sam’s Club stores. The technology also powers the optical e-commerce experience on SamsClub.com.

While Memomi’s website says its technology can be used for product categories beyond optics – including beauty, fashion, accessories, footwear and more – Walmart declined to talk about the service’s future plans in those areas. Instead, the retailer told us that it is focused solely on leveraging Memomi’s capabilities in virtual optical try-ons.

However, Walmart has been investing in a number of new technologies in the virtual try-on space, including a recently launched artificial intelligence-powered virtual clothing fitting feature powered by its Zeekit acquisition. Last week, it also launched an AR feature that lets users see furniture and other home décor items appear in their own spaces.

With the addition of Memomi, the retailer said they are interested in both the technology and the team. Co-founders Salvador Nissi Vilcovsky and Ofer Saban will thus join Walmart, as will the rest of the team when the deal is approved by regulators and officially finalized in the coming weeks. While the founders’ new official titles have not yet been announced, we are told that the Memomi team will join Walmart’s global technology team.

Walmart describes the deal as the “next step” in providing personalized and affordable optical care online, suggesting that the company is aiming to take on competitors like 1-800 Contacts and online brands like Warby Parker further with the acquisition. By bringing its technology partners in-house, it can also work more closely with the team on future development and integration, even if those remain limited to online optical technology solutions.

Customers are looking for digital access to care at home, and buying eyewear is no exception,” said David Reitnauer, vice president of professional services for Walmart Health & Wellness, in a statement. This acquisition supports our Health & Wellness mission to provide convenient access to care for the communities we serve. The communities we serve provide accessible care.”

“We are excited to welcome the Memomi team to Walmart and add their capabilities to our leading virtual reality technology that is transforming the retail experience for our customers and members,” added Cheryl Ainoa, senior vice president, New Business and Emerging Technologies, Walmart Global Technology.

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