Last year, Wal-Mart’s U.S. stores and Sam’s Club brought in a combined revenue of $365.4 billion, which is about ten percent of all non-automotive retail in spending in the U.S. Most of the country’s GDP depends on consumer spending. So having the market share of nearly one tenth of all retail spending is evidence of Wal-Marts size and shows how influential it can be on the economy as a whole. It affects many aspects of American’s lives including stakeholders such as suppliers, employees, and customers. For example, when Wal-Mart raised its wages to $10 per hour last year, a bunch of its competitors followed suit. However, despite a solid foothold in the retail space, Wal-Mart has sometimes been criticized in the past for not adopting new technology quickly enough. So it is currently focusing on three aspects of innovation to improve its competitiveness – growing its e-commerce business and creating a blimp-like storage facility for delivering goods to customers.

According to Zvi Bar, Wal-Mart has “improved its digital e-commerce options this year by adding products and reducing the minimum price for free shipping.” One way to enter a new field is by taking over a smaller company that’s already familiar with the landscape. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. and Jet.com, Inc. announced a year ago that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Walmart to acquire Jet for approximately $3 billion in cash. Furthermore, as part of this deal, $300 million of Wal-Mart shares will be paid over time. “Wal-Mart posted 1.8 percent comp growth in the second quarter, with comp traffic of 1.3 percent, and total quarterly revenue of $123.4 billion, up about 2.1 percent on a year-over-year basis. Operating income was down 3.2 percent to $5.97 billion, or down 1.6 percent on a constant currency basis.” If Wal-Mart continues to ramp up e-commerce offerings and find new efficient ways to integrate online sales with its traditional business then investors should be rewarded in the years to come.