Walmart
Helping people live better and renew the planet while building thriving, resilient communities.
Our Impact
- +$3Bn in Revenue
- Massive waste diverted from landfill
Challenger Brand StrategyBusiness Model DevelopmentPilot and ScaleEnvironmental Impact
THE CHALLENGE
When Rahul, 5&Vine’s founder, joined Walmart.com in 2010, he was hired to promote sustainable business practices through efforts like making the packaging greener. At the time, Walmart was Fortune 1, so he understood the staggering responsibility that came with the role.
But rather than work strictly on the packaging, Rahul felt he could do more. He asked, how could Walmart promote sustainability through the product itself?
OUR APPROACH
• Become a student of the organization. He resolved to learn about Walmart’s founding story, evolution and impact. He distilled the founding purpose down to: helping lower income, rural Americans access the same quality and pricing of goods as urban Americans.
• Identify issues keeping the executives up at night. Walmart’s liberal 30-day return policy resulted in billions in returns and lost revenue annually.
• Identify consumer pain points he could resolve. As much as customers appreciated Walmart’s low prices on tier 2 branded items, they wanted premium products, like iPhones.
• Develop solutions to advance sustainability and build the business. He developed a blueprint to refurbish and sell premium brands, demonstrating the potential to sell products that already exist rather than rely on the manufacturing of new ones.
• Pilot a refurbishing hub. He built out a refurbishing workshop in one of Walmart’s return centers so the highest value returns could be refurbished and resold on Walmart.com. As this proved successful, he scaled it to every return center Walmart had.
• Encourage customers to bring in their used electronics for market value, which increased their purchasing power in store for necessities and drove more volume through the infrastructure he built out.
• Solve for how to offer instant payments for used electronics items processed on Walmart.com by pitching an innovative solution to PayPal, which they implemented.
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THE OUTCOME
+$3 Billion in incremental revenue and millions of pounds of electronics diverted from landfill.
The program has now evolved into Walmart Restored and expanded from electronics and gaming to small and large appliances, cameras and home security.
Rahul’s experience at Walmart helped him understand the strategies of Goliath and the incumbent’s playbook, which was foundational to 5&Vine. We now use this knowledge to help Challengers win.
His intrapreneurial impact received much acclaim. Rahul was the recipient of Walmart’s Innovation Champion Award, recognizing an individual for game-changing ideas.
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Ready to challenge the
status quo and win?
👋 I'm Rahul, founder and CMO at 5&Vine. Reach out to schedule an intro call about your marketing challenges and let's assess how 5&Vine can help your brand win.
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