How many invoices does Wal-mart pay annually?  In the past several
years what has been the growth in number of invoices?  Other stats
would be helpful: number of checks printed.  Number of Vendors, etc. 
Source of information is important as well.  Please don't answer after
Tuesday June 7th.  Thanks.

---

Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 03 Jun 2005 19:36 PDT

Hello jss3, 

I posted some material in the comment section for you to review.

Do my findings meet your needs?

Thanks,
Bobbie7

---

Clarification of Question by jss3-ga on 04 Jun 2005 14:55 PDT

Yes.  The question is answered. Thank you very much.  Please post as answer.

Any idea how many transactions they process at the register level - so
called "scan data"?

Dear jss3,

Thank you for accepting my findings as the official answer to your question.

Regarding your clarification: I'll see if I can find the number of
transactions that are processed and will get back to you as soon as
possible.

Thanks,
Bobbie7




79 million invoices a year

?A.T. Kearney, Plano, Texas, estimated $40 billion is wasted each year
due to supply chain inefficiencies, and much of that is linked to
unsynchronized data. More thanhalf of invoices contain errors, for
example, and reconciliation costs at least $60 perinvoice. For
Wal-Mart Stores, which processes 79 million invoices a year, the
potential savings are phenomenal.?

UCCnet 
http://www.uccnet.org/Docs/pdf/ExecTechDataSync.pdf


------------------------------------------------------------


Wal-Mart issues 1.6 million checks to its vendors annually

?Wal-Mart issues 1.6 million checks to its vendors annually. In any
given year, approximately twenty of these checks are stolen. Between
April 1999 and April 2000, six checks were stolen from Dallas,
Texas. Postal inspectors informed Wal-Mart officials that the Dallas
thefts were not part of an organized scheme but were independent
criminal acts. The inspectors also indicated that several individuals
responsible for stealing the checks had been apprehended.?

Source: 
Find Law: UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=4th/021912p.html


?The Court observed that the record indicated that Wal-Mart issues 1.6
million checks to vendors annually and approximately 20 Wal-Mart
checks are stolen from the mail each year.?

First published on BankersOnline.com 08/11/03
http://web.archive.org/web/20041021074704/http://www.bankersonline.com/operations/whopays.html


------------------------------------------------------------


According to the following excerpts, Wal-Mart has between 21,000 and
30,000 vendors.

?To control costs and manage deliveries, Wal-Mart implemented a costly
technology system in the '90s. Electronic data exchange allows it to
optimally manage inventories with its 21,000 vendors. And the vendors
take note: Wal-Mart accounts for more than half the sales of AT&T
phone cards; 28 percent of Dial products; and 20 percent of sales for
Hershey Foods, Clorox, Revlon and Rayovac.?
http://www.wiredpen.com/2003/week43/


?Wal-Mart's U.S. sales of $203.7 billion, out of $244.5 billion
worldwide for the year ended Jan. 31, affected more than 21,000
suppliers. The company sells more than half of AT&T's phone cards and
Procter & Gamble's Swiffer dust mops.?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001771046_walmart21.html


?Consequently, Wal-Mart, which has approximately 30,000 vendors, has
recognized Henkel as "Vendor of the Year" in 1999, 2000, and 2002 in
four departments: stationery, hardware, paint, and housewares.
Wal-Mart also selected Henkel as a "Category Captain." In this
capacity, Henkel uses its point-of-sale information from other
customers, analyzes the data, and helps determine where products
should be displayed.?
Oracle: Business Intelligence
http://www.oracle.com/oramag/profit/03-nov/p43henkel.html


?In April, Wal-Mart told its 30,000 suppliers to conform to GTIN
standards and register with UCCnet. The registry then runs a
compliance check to make sure the data follows industry standards for
describing the item in an effort to catch errors. It also checks that
each code represents only one item. UCCnet then zaps the data to
Wal-Mart's Retail Link using XML.?

?So far 140 of its 30,000 vendors, including Kraft, Nestle Purina,
Kellogg's and Campbell Soup Co., have signed on. Procter & Gamble has
all 16,000 of its U.S. products uploaded to Retail Link via UCCnet.?
http://www.forbes.com/best/2002/1007/webextras01_print.html

---

Clarification of Answer by bobbie7-ga on 04 Jun 2005 15:37 PDT

I found the following material about the number of transactions that
are processed at Wal-Mart.


4/30/04: Understanding the Wal-Mart Shopper

"But with over 100 million transactions a week, their household
penetration has to be very high. "

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:aba-BN4DqwsJ:www.retailwire.com/Discussions/Sngl_Discussion.cfm/9831+%22wal-mart%22+%22+million+transactions&hl=es


--------------------------------------------------------



The company registers 100 million transactions each week

"An average Wal-Mart brings in $50 million to $70 million a year,
according to Whalin.Overall, the company registers 100 million
transactions each week, Boozer reports, noting that the parking lots
are consistently packed with vehicles."

Aftermarket Business,  March, 2004
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3306/is_3_114/ai_114716390


--------------------------------------------------------


10 million transactions a day at its 4,600-odd stores 

"Wal-Mart gathers point-of-sale data on more than 10 million
transactions a day at its 4,600-odd stores and makes it available to
some 10,000 suppliers through its Retail Link extranet by 4 a.m. the
next day. Manufacturers like Gillette, P&G and Unilever use Retail
Link to monitor sales of their goods at the store level and replenish
inventories. The system works great when sales are steady but breaks
down when there?s a sudden change in demand."


RFID Journal
http://www.equitekcapital.com/Investorinfo/Webpagecontent/alien_articles/alienrfidjournalwalmart.htm

--------------------------------------------------------

Dear jss3,

Please review the following information.

If my findings meet your needs, please let me know and I will
gladly post it as the official answer to your question.


Thanks,
Bobbie7
Google Answers Researcher


------------------------------------------------------------


79 million invoices a year

?A.T. Kearney, Plano, Texas, estimated $40 billion is wasted each year
due to supply chain inefficiencies, and much of that is linked to
unsynchronized data. More thanhalf of invoices contain errors, for
example, and reconciliation costs at least $60 perinvoice. For
Wal-Mart Stores, which processes 79 million invoices a year, the
potential savings are phenomenal.?

UCCnet 
http://www.uccnet.org/Docs/pdf/ExecTechDataSync.pdf


------------------------------------------------------------


Wal-Mart issues 1.6 million checks to its vendors annually

?Wal-Mart issues 1.6 million checks to its vendors annually. In any
given year, approximately twenty of these checks are stolen. Between
April 1999 and April 2000, six checks were stolen from Dallas,
Texas. Postal inspectors informed Wal-Mart officials that the Dallas
thefts were not part of an organized scheme but were independent
criminal acts. The inspectors also indicated that several individuals
responsible for stealing the checks had been apprehended.?

Source: 
Find Law: UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=4th/021912p.html


?The Court observed that the record indicated that Wal-Mart issues 1.6
million checks to vendors annually and approximately 20 Wal-Mart
checks are stolen from the mail each year.?

First published on BankersOnline.com 08/11/03
http://web.archive.org/web/20041021074704/http://www.bankersonline.com/operations/whopays.html


------------------------------------------------------------


According to the following excerpts, Wal-Mart has between 21,000 and
30,000 vendors.

?To control costs and manage deliveries, Wal-Mart implemented a costly
technology system in the '90s. Electronic data exchange allows it to
optimally manage inventories with its 21,000 vendors. And the vendors
take note: Wal-Mart accounts for more than half the sales of AT&T
phone cards; 28 percent of Dial products; and 20 percent of sales for
Hershey Foods, Clorox, Revlon and Rayovac.?
http://www.wiredpen.com/2003/week43/


?Wal-Mart's U.S. sales of $203.7 billion, out of $244.5 billion
worldwide for the year ended Jan. 31, affected more than 21,000
suppliers. The company sells more than half of AT&T's phone cards and
Procter & Gamble's Swiffer dust mops.?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001771046_walmart21.html


?Consequently, Wal-Mart, which has approximately 30,000 vendors, has
recognized Henkel as "Vendor of the Year" in 1999, 2000, and 2002 in
four departments: stationery, hardware, paint, and housewares.
Wal-Mart also selected Henkel as a "Category Captain." In this
capacity, Henkel uses its point-of-sale information from other
customers, analyzes the data, and helps determine where products
should be displayed.?
Oracle: Business Intelligence
http://www.oracle.com/oramag/profit/03-nov/p43henkel.html


?In April, Wal-Mart told its 30,000 suppliers to conform to GTIN
standards and register with UCCnet. The registry then runs a
compliance check to make sure the data follows industry standards for
describing the item in an effort to catch errors. It also checks that
each code represents only one item. UCCnet then zaps the data to
Wal-Mart's Retail Link using XML.?

?So far 140 of its 30,000 vendors, including Kraft, Nestle Purina,
Kellogg's and Campbell Soup Co., have signed on. Procter & Gamble has
all 16,000 of its U.S. products uploaded to Retail Link via UCCnet.?
http://www.forbes.com/best/2002/1007/webextras01_print.html

Bobbie7 --

That data's astoundingly good, given the lack of public data for
information like this.  Sources like A.T. Kearney can't be beat -- I'm
just surprised that you didn't post this information as an answer. 
Having backup in the number of vendors from other sources is really
just the icing on the cake.

Given the fact that Wal-Mart probably doesn't even "invoice" in the
traditional sense -- I find your comment to be an extraordinary
"Answer."

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

An astonishingly good answer on a which should have been a very boring
topic. I have privately speculated that G**gle should be next on
Wal-Mart's acquisition list (actually, a merger would make more
sense). They are already in the ISP business and have started online
sales. They already own their own bank. With G**gle's innovations
married to their awesome inventory control and delivery system, think
of the possibilities (for good or ill).