Walmart, the world’s largest company by revenue, is a bellwether for the US economy and retail industry. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company partners with a network of more than 100,000 businesses to sell products online and fill shelves in more than 10,000 stores and Sam’s Club membership outlets worldwide.

The mammoth task of overseeing product sourcing in the “very first mile” of this vast supply chain falls to Andrea Albright. Since becoming Walmart’s executive vice president of sourcing in February 2022, she has covered all of the retailer’s private brands for the 19 countries in which it operates.

Ms Albright, who has worked in various roles at Walmart since 2005, tells fDi that the greatest challenge of recent years has been how supply chains and transportation within them has shifted.

“Our focus continues to be on what we can control: how we make sure we’ve got redundancy and resiliency without our supply chain,” she says. Post-pandemic shipping delays and the surge in prices for shipping containers have shown businesses “how lean the supply chains have gotten, particularly in transportation”, she adds.

Three-pronged approach

Inventory building has become a more prominent strategy at many companies as a way to manage supply chain bottlenecks. However, Ms Albright cautions that inventory building can make companies less flexible. “We try to be as real time as possible and make sure we’re adapting to situations by category and consumer demand,” she says.

Ms Albright says that Walmart takes a customer-led “three-pronged approach” to its global sourcing, and says that it is vital to create the right value for customers, build trust in sourcing and build resilience into the supply chain.

“We’re not only minimising risk, but taking advantage of opportunities to lower prices and change the paradigm of how we source products,” she says.

So what is her best advice for any multinational trying to source globally in a changing world? Everything must start from a customer perspective.

“Whatever you’re doing, whether it’s transportation, merchandising or sourcing, if you lead with understanding your customers, it will very clearly tell you what you need to do,” she says.

Sourcing locally

Part of this customer focus has meant sourcing locally, including in its home market of the US, where Walmart has pledged to invest an additional $350bn by 2030 in products. It estimates that this commitment will support more than 750,000 US jobs.

More than two-thirds of Walmart’s products in the US are made, grown or assembled within the country. “We’re really focused on making sure we’ve got products as close to customers and customer demand as we possibly can,” says Ms Albright. 

Its path to local sourcing is reflected in other major markets like India, where it has committed to source $10bn worth of goods locally every year by 2027.

Ms Albright notes that India, like any country in the world, has challenges around access to raw materials and components in the quantities needed to meet consumer demand. As the world changes, Ms Albright says the greatest hurdle is to ensure sufficient supply from geographies as the world changes and manufacturing shifts to different locations.

Aside from sourcing, Ms Albright is kept up at night by talent and the need to ensure the right opportunities and education is available. It is vital to ensure “the identification, development and succession planning of the future leaders”, she says.