Walmart’s global chief technology officer says crypto assets and the metaverse will disrupt payment methods and improve product discovery for the retail giant.
In a new interview at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit, Suresh Kumar, Walmart’s global chief technology officer and chief development officer, says the future of retail includes crypto transactions for both real world and virtual goods.
He also says product discovery will increase in online spaces like the metaverse or live streams.
“I think that there are three major areas of disruption. Crypto falls in sort of the middle of it. I have talked before about the way in which customers are getting inspired and discovering products. That is changing.
And part of that is going to happen in the metaverse. Part of that is going to happen on live streams, inside your social media app. So whether it is physical goods or virtual goods, they play a part in terms of what the customer wants.”
According to Kumar, digital assets will disrupt the retail business by providing an alternative form of payment, which could cause some sellers to struggle to find a way to accept them.
“Crypto will become an important part of how customers transact. We want to make sure that we make it as friction free for customers to be able to transact, and to be able to buy, and how they are able to derive value out of it. And that is where I think a lot of the disruption is going to start happening in terms of different payment methods, different payment options.
The role of crypto is going to continue to play a very important role in that. And obviously, we want to be there where the customer really needs us to be.
The last part of it is how products get discovered [and how] products get delivered. A lot of disruption going on over there. But when you specifically talk about crypto, it is going to be about discovery of products, whether it is physical or virtual inside either the metaverse or upfront and then how people transact.”
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