Walmart goes hipster as it appoints Instagram founder Kevin Systrom to its board
The world's largest retailer has come over more Walden than Walmart, after it appointed Instagram founder and chief executive Kevin Systrom to its board.
The US-based supermarket, which owns Asda, said Systrom's "digital expertise will be invaluable" – so we can only presume Walmart is after his technical know-how, rather than is ability to attract beard-sporting, skinny jeans-wearing hipster types.
Systrom, who has been recruited alongside Yahoo chief executive Marissa Meyer, will provide some much-needed experience of technology. Walmart may have set up a series of "Tech Labs" in Silicon Vally and fintech firm Adchemy, but one look at its revenue figures suggests it could do with all the help it can get from a tech perspective. Although second-quarter figures posted in August showed revenues of $120.1bn, up 2.8 per cent from the same period a year ago, online accounted for about 0.3 per cent of same-store sales. Last year total e-commerce sales were $7.7bn; this year it is targeting $13bn, almost double that.
Walmart chairman Rob Walton paid tribute to Systrom:
Kevin's entrepreneurial background and his technical and digital expertise will be invaluable as we further connect with customers and deploy new capabilities through e-commerce and mobile channels… Kevin's passion and deep knowledge of social media align with our focus to engage customers through our digital and physical channels.