Wal-Mart to 'Edit' Product Selection

Wal-Mart will reduce the number of products it stocks in some categories as it seeks to improve the shopping environment and provide a more "relevant" merchandising assortment, according to marketing executive Stephen Quinn. "There is a lot of work going on in editing categories," said Quinn, the chain's new senior vice president of marketing, in a March 8 presentation to analysts at the 12th Annual Bear Stearns Retail, Restaurants & Consumer Conference in New York City.Cutting down the SKU count in some categories will make room for expansion in others, Quinn said. But the goal is also to enhance the shopping experience by reducing "the stress involved with a very wide assortment," Quinn said. "It allows you to add elsewhere, but also to do better merchandising. The opportunity is to sell as much or more" by simplifying the decision-making process.The chain fully intends to maintain its leadership position as a "one-stop shopping" destination. But it needs to clean up stores "in such a way that it'll be easier to shop, easier to find these things you're looking for," he said. (In February, the company announced a plan to remodel up to 1,800 stores over the next 18 months.) Part of the plan calls for a greater emphasis on solutions-based merchandising rather than simple product displays.Wal-Mart also will remain the price leader, but is "moving to much more of a value proposition" that incorporates price, product quality, and shopping experience, he said. To that end, it will continue to push into fashion apparel (the Metro 7 line launched last year has been a smash hit), will have 400-plus SKUs of organic foods in place by summer, and is resetting electronics departments to help present the chain as more of a category leader.Such significant changes in the company's marketing and merchandising strategies are designed to convince the chain's "selective shoppers" to explore the store beyond the packaged goods aisles and "get into the consideration set" of skeptics who don't shop at Wal-Mart, Quinn said. But "our first job is to keep" the base of long-time loyalists who already shop the entire store, he said.In other marketing news, Wal-Mart recently hired Dallas-based Millsport to be its first sports marketing agency.

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