Scaling Walmart's Online Grocery Team (from 1 market to 1000+ markets nationally)
Experiment to Top Initiative: How to Get Strategic Leadership Buy-In, Engage Divisional Leaders, & Win Over Peers and Direct Reports
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We are thrilled to bring you a guest post by Jamie A. Lee, current eCommerce Advisor to early-stage startups at Stripes Co & Starshot Venture LaunchPad, and 4x eCommerce leader (VP/GM). She is an eCommerce executive with 14+ years of driving digital and omnichannel growth for renowned brands Nike, Walmart, EA, and Sony, as well as emerging brands Vital Proteins and Everlane.
Below, Jamie talks about her experience being on the founding team of Walmart Online Grocery as Chief of Staff and first marketing hire. She shares the importance of developing strategic relationships with leaders, peers, and direct reports, which propelled - Walmart Online Grocery into a top business priority in a year and took the service offering from 1 market to 1000+ markets nationally.
FYI. If you want to learn more, Jamie runs a class for aspiring product, business, and marketing leaders on Maven, eCommerce 201. It is Maven’s top-rated eCommerce course and the next cohort is September 28-29. If you want to ace your next career move, you can contact her here to join her 1:1 coaching program and get the skills to negotiate that raise, promotion, or the resources your team deserves.
Apply to be featured as a guest post: If you are an expert and want to share actionable career advice with our readers, get in touch.
From Experiment to Top Initiative: Scaling Walmart's Online Grocery Team through Strategic Leadership Buy-In
When we set out to launch Walmart Online Grocery, we knew we were taking a bold risk. The market was saturated, competitors were moving fast, and we were introducing something entirely new. With a small team of 10, our vision was ambitious—to transform the way customers shopped for groceries.
But, uncertainty loomed.
Could we gain customer adoption, generate momentum, and secure the internal buy-in to make this work?
As we moved forward, the challenges mounted. Executive support, resource allocation, and division alignment became critical hurdles, and the pressing question was “Can we turn this small pilot into a scalable business?”
Initially, the Online Grocery project was a tiny experiment designed to test new ideas with minimal risk. The service had the potential to attract new customer segments and increase the average order value (AOV) by driving foot traffic into stores.
Our vision was clear: If successful, this initiative could significantly impact Walmart’s business model and brand loyalty - and could fundamentally change the way people shop for groceries.
The Challenge: Getting Buy-In
As a member of Walmart Online Grocery’s founding leadership team, I needed creative methods to secure buy-in at all levels, from the C-suite to direct reports. The total buy-in was instrumental in scaling Walmart's Online Grocery 'experiment' from a small team of 10 to a robust team of over 100 and making it one of Walmart’s Top 3 priorities within just two years.
I will share my three strategies for getting this type of buy-in on new initiatives and how you can use them as well.
Here are the strategies for success:
Aligning with Executive Objectives
Engaging Divisional Leaders
Winning Over Peers and Direct Reports
1. Aligning with Executive Objectives
To resonate with the executive leadership (VP, C-suite), it was imperative to align our project with their top priorities.
To do this, I identified the top 3 objectives in two ways: Through our annual meeting where executives shared goals during town halls (so yes, it’s worth paying attention to!), and through any annual/quarterly communications to the organization.
These 3 objectives were front and center, and we showcased how the Online Grocery initiative could support key organizational goals, such as:
New Customer Growth: We targeted new customer segments to drive significant growth. For example, we wanted to reach the “millennial Mom” who was more affluent than our base demographic, who 1) truly had a problem to be solved (there were no convenient ‘drive-thrus’ to pick up groceries and save time & money with their weekly errands) and 2) had higher purchasing power which could thereby lead to higher LTV customers for us
Increased AOV: We demonstrated the higher AOV of online grocery services compared to traditional grocery services. Consumers were more likely to purchase more if they used our service - they would order for store pickup, but still go into the store to buy additional products such as fresh produce or meat (since they would rather pick those themselves).
Brand Building: We used the initiative to enhance brand loyalty without risking the broader Walmart brand. Service models like online grocery pickup tend to be a weekly habit, and the frequency play led to stronger brand affinity. In addition, the targeted outreach to more affluent Millennial moms helped build a stronger viral loop than our baseline consumer, given that word of mouth among moms was such a powerful brand builder.
To communicate how our vision supported the larger business goals, we shared our Online Grocery goals during existing monthly business reviews (MBRs). We knew the right decision-makers were there and the focus was metric-oriented, so it was the perfect setting to present our ideas. If your company does not have a regular MBR, find a regular meeting cadence with executives to share your initiative and key objectives.
Highlighting Shared Company-Wide Metrics and De-Risking Investments
As a next step in gaining executive buy-in, we emphasized the hero metrics that mattered to the executives and the larger org, such as new customer growth and higher AOV.
However, executive meetings are tricky - you never know what curveball you will get. Of course, we got thrown a curveball, on our metric for brand building.
Classically, of the 3 metrics, the hardest to prove is ‘brand building.’ We were tracking it through metrics like household penetration and NPS scores, which were typically done every 6-12 months, so it would be hard to measure milestones on a more frequent cadence. The issue was that more frequent measurement is critical when trying to get buy-in with a newer initiative. So, we looked for other leading indicators such as search volume (on Google and Walmart.com) and word-of-mouth metrics like referral rate (% of customers that have successfully referred new people to our brand) to suggest that this metric was tracking.
To close things out on a strong note (I believe this sealed the deal), we presented a clear de-risking strategy by positioning our team as a testing hub where new concepts could be trialed with lower visibility and risk.
2. Engaging Divisional Leaders
Once we had executive buy-in, the next step was to secure support from 3 divisional leaders (these are Director / Senior Director leaders in the organization, including functions like finance and general management).
These leaders needed to sign off on budget and resourcing for us as we built out priorities for the year. Securing this support involved tying our project to divisional goals and showcasing the collaborative benefits of our initiative.
Tying to Divisional Goals
We demonstrated how the initiative aligned with the top objectives of various divisions, ensuring it fell within their top 3 to 5 priorities. For instance, we highlighted:
Store Revenue Realization: How online grocery could drive store revenue by increasing foot traffic. In our beta test (Colorado market), we tracked the behavior of the first month’s cohort and found that a meaningful % of customers were walking into stores and adding more to their purchase, specifically produce and meat that they preferred picking out themselves.
Higher Value Customers: Building segments that contributed to higher AOV and lifetime value (LTV). For example, Millennial Moms in key markets that we focused on contributed to higher AOV since they were buying for the whole family and shopped on a weekly basis (a higher frequency than the average consumer).
Showcasing Collaborative Benefits
After the executive meeting which established the first step of landing high-level goals, we then scheduled our divisional leaders meeting ~1-2 weeks afterward. Aside from having different attendees (Director to Senior Director leaders vs. VP and above in the executive meeting), this session differed because the topics are limited to initiatives that have already garnered executive approval and have essentially passed the first ‘gate’ of approvals.
This meeting took place on a regular, monthly cadence. If you don’t have a similar ongoing meeting, you can create an ad hoc one that brings this level of leaders together.
Preparing for Monthly Meetings
To prepare for this meeting each month, we spoke to each of these divisional leaders 1:1 to build a stronger relationship and to understand their annual goals.
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