Walmart's Secret B2B Weapon & How Ashley Hubka Is Refining a Business Platform Millions Already Use | 5IM

Foreigning us for five insightful minutes is Ashley Hubka.

Ashley is the senior vice president of Walmart Business which is Walmart's B2B E commerce platform.

Ashley, it's great to meet you and let's start by having you introduce yourself and your role at Walmart.

My role is SVP and General Manager of Walmart business which is Walmart's B2B division.

So in leading that area I'm responsible for the strategy, the day to day operations and performance as well as the growth of our business unit.

Well, and tell us a little bit more about that Ashley.

What is the primary mission and vision behind Walmart business services?

So the role I had before this one was I led enterprise strategy across all of Walmart and at that time we started looking in the data and we realized that there are millions of of customers who are in fact organizations that shop Walmart in stores and online.

And as we dug into that a bit further, we realized we really had an opportunity to serve them even better by leveraging all of the assets and capabilities of Walmart but starting to build the things that serve them uniquely.

So our purpose as Walmart business is to save businesses, nonprofits and government entities and time, money and hassle so they can focus on their missions.

And we do that with an omnichannel offering.

We have our own site, business.walmart.com we have a unique Walmart business app so people can shop us how and when and where they want to in their office, on their desktop or on the go.

And then of course they also have the choice of how to receive those orders, whether that's shipping or pickup or or delivery.

And we bring them a wide assortment of products at Walmart's everyday low price promise.

And we also offer tools that really are about business purchasing processes like multi user accounts or spend management tools.

Ashley, dive into a little bit more like how some of the business services differ from the traditional retail operations at Walmart and how those are kind of meeting some of the more unique needs of some of the businesses that are a part of it.

Yeah, let me take that by giving an example of a type of customer.

So we have a lot of different areas where we've gotten traction.

But I'll use the example of a coffee shop.

So we have millions of items in our assortment.

But one of the things we've really built out that's unique for businesses is business printing.

So at kiosks, in our stores or online, businesses can access a wide range of essentially marketing templates.

So, so business cards Flyers, signage.

So our coffee shop could go in and create marketing materials that are really specific to businesses.

And then second, second example would be we have automated purchasing and delivery through subscription.

You can select items and you can have them delivered, shipped, arrived to you on the cadence you select.

And so our same coffee shop could go ahead and put things like coffee cups on a subscription basis and ensure that those are going to be in stock, they're going to have peace of mind, they're going to be in control.

And then a third example would be that they, we offer a lot of choice and flexibility in how they receive orders that can match their operating rhythm.

So obviously we have, you know, one tap check in for curbside pickup, we have next day and two day shipping and we have delivery and express delivery from stores.

So again, our coffee shop, if they're running out of milk right before that afternoon caffeine break, they could have an express delivery from the store and have that milk delivered very quickly so they can keep the lattes rolling and not have to take a barista off the line and send them out to the store.

So those are some examples.

And then, you know, we also have this idea of spend limits, approval flows, pay by invoice, where businesses can be approved, check out by entering a purchase order number, get invoiced and Pay with net 30 terms.

So that I think kind of illustrates the examples of how do we leverage Walmart in ways that matter to organizations and then what are some of these things they've added on that are uniquely to meet their needs.

So Ashley Ann's a big fan of Walmart plus she's probably the biggest fan out there.

Is there a comparable program for if you're a Walmart, if you're a small business owner or if you're know one of these entities that you talked about, Is there something similar?

I love that you asked that.

So to become a customer of Walmart business, you need to be, as I mentioned, a business, nonprofit or government entity.

We do have a verification process.

Those organizations could have a free account and use that forever.

But we do have Walmart Business plus, which is an equivalent membership program, trades on some of the same core retail benefits like free shipping, no minimum, free delivery from stores for baskets over $35.

And then we've added in again features that are unique or benefits that are unique for businesses, like certain spend management analytic tools that would let businesses go deeper in terms of slicing and dicing their spend by time period, by category, by user, et cetera.

So that's a benefit we've baked into our membership.

That makes sense for an organizational membership.

Got it.

Got it.

Yeah.

We're going to have to take a look at this ad for omnitalk.

I didn't even know this existed, so.

So I'm curious, Ed, when you look forward to the end of, I mean, 2025 is almost to a close.

We got another month to go.

But as you look beyond that in 2026, in the future, what are you most excited about?

I go back to what we're trying to do for our organizational customers, which is bring them great assortment, price and experiences to earn their trust and earn an increasing share of their wallet.

A couple things I'm excited about for next year is continuing to expand that assortment with more and more B2B oriented or B2B specific products, larger pack sizes, industry specific items, and then in terms of experiences, we will introduce additional spend management tools.

That's just a really big part of how organizations operate.

And we will expand pay by invoice.

So we're looking forward to enabling those experiences that again, kind of allow us to earn the trust, earn the business of our customers.

Just as we do on the Walmart side.

Right.

Just another great example of Walmart taking the one plus one equals three approach to serving their customers across all varieties of end shapes and sizes.

Thank you, Ashley.

Thanks, Ashley.