Key facts
- Walmart CEO John Furner denied that the company uses personalized pricing.
- Furner stated Walmart will not set different prices based on customer identity or time of day.
- The company's AI shopping assistant, Sparky, is for better service, not personalized pricing.
- Furner affirmed that pricing is based on the product, not the individual customer.
- The "Every Day Low Prices" principle remains central to Walmart's business model.
Walmart CEO John Furner has sought to allay concerns regarding the company's use of new pricing technology, asserting that the retail giant does not and will not implement personalized pricing based on individual customer data. In a memo to employees and customers on Friday, Furner addressed questions about the implementation of digital shelf labels and the AI-powered shopping assistant, Sparky.
Furner clarified that engaging with Sparky is an invitation to improve service, not to leverage personal information for price differentiation. He emphasized that Walmart has never used customer relationships to charge more and will not do so with AI. He also stated that any form of personalized pricing would contradict the company's decades-old commitment to its "Every Day Low Prices" (EDLP) model.
"We price the product, not the person," Furner said. He explained that digital shelf labels help ensure prices at the shelf match those at checkout and save associates time. Regarding AI, Furner stated that understanding customers is key to serving them better, and this principle extends to online interactions with Sparky. He committed to three principles: not setting different prices based on who a customer is or the time of day, holding shopping tools to the same promise by not using shared information to raise prices or hide lower-cost options, and continuing to use information responsibly and respecting customer choices.