Wal-Mart

Yesterday, Uber introduced the Corner Store, a same-day home delivery service. The personal ride-share company is enabling mobile app users to order household items (e.g., medicine, toiletries) and have a driver bring them directly to their doorstep. "But of course! Why haven't retailers and tech startups thought of this before? What a novel idea! Not to mention how cost effective it is!" said no one.

Even for top retailers, tackling web performance is like aiming at a constantly moving target. As soon as you've gotten a bead on one performance issue, a brand new challenge pops up. The silver lining here is that the impact of all this complexity can be mitigated with a thoughtful optimization strategy and a commitment to evolving this strategy to continue to meet future demands. Overall, there are a number of optimization techniques that site owners can implement to speed up their pages. Here are a few:

A day after announcing a disappointing second quarter, Wal-Mart has made an aggressive holiday promise to its customers: the world's largest retailer says it will staff every cash register from the day after Thanksgiving through the days just before Christmas during peak shopping times. Wal-Mart's "checkout promise" is aimed at addressing lengthy waits in checkout lines. "We feel good about price and having the top gifts of the season, so the next priority is about getting customers in and out of the stores quickly," Duncan Mac Naughton, Wal-Mart's chief merchandising officer, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Wal-Mart thought shoppers would like the opportunity to use a smartphone app to scan items they want to buy as they walk through store aisles. In theory, they could speed through self-checkout. But customers couldn't figure out how to work the Scan & Go app, so Wal-Mart nixed it. Instead of looking at the app as a failure, though, Wal-Mart took what it learned from Scan & Go to create another service: it found that customers like being able to track their spending, an insight that became the impetus for a national program that enables shoppers to store electronic receipts.

Wal-Mart, in its latest bid to compete with nemesis Amazon.com, is rebuilding its website to further personalize the online shopping experience of each customer. Wal-Mart is rolling out a feature that will enable its website to show shoppers more products that they may like, based on previous purchase data. It will also customize Wal-Mart's homepage for each shopper based on the customer's location, local weather, and their search and purchase history. So if a new mom just bought a stroller or crib on Walmart.com, the revamped website might recommend diapers and car seats, too. 

Brian Cornell, Target's new CEO, just stepped into a hot retail mess. CFO John Mulligan alluded to the challenges when he dropped by Bloomberg News a few weeks ago and acknowledged something industry watchers have long known: "Tarjay," inventor of cheap chic, is scared to take chances. "We got a little bit risk-averse," said Mulligan, who was interim CEO until yesterday, when Target said it had hired Cornell, a PepsiCo Inc. executive, as its first outside chief. Of all the challenges facing Cornell, firing up the culture may be the most important.

The merging of retail and technology has led to the two sides poaching each other's talent. This commonly leads to companies gobbling up entire startups, as was demonstrated yesterday by Wal-Mart's tech team, @WalmartLabs, acquiring Luvocracy, a three-year-old firm and an online community of half-a-million members that allows consumers to discover and buy products recommended by other people, from their own friends and family to bloggers and other influencers. Sixteen Luvocracy employees are slated to join @WalmartLabs as part of the acquisition. Company spokesman Bao Nguyen told MarketWatch that Wal-Mart doesn't plan to integrate Luvocracy's technology into Walmart.com.

Empty shelves, grumpy customers, long lines at the register: These are just some of the challenges facing Wal-Mart's new U.S. chief. Greg Foran, who takes charge Aug. 9, inherits a chain wedded to an outdated big-box model, struggling to

Wal-Mart U.S.CEO Bill Simon is leaving the company, the discount retailer announced Thursday. Greg Foran, president and CEO of Walmart China since March 2012, will take over the reins of Wal-Mart U.S. from Simon on

How do you compete if you can’t offer same-day delivery? Doug Sternberg offers his expert thoughts in this webinar.