When Ashley Hubka took on enterprise strategy at Walmart, she uncovered something remarkable: millions of customers shopping Walmart weren’t individuals. They were businesses, nonprofits, and government entities. This discovery sparked the creation of Walmart Business, a dedicated B2B e-commerce platform that’s redefining how organizations purchase supplies.
In a recent 5 Insightful Minutes conversation, Hubka, now Senior Vice President and General Manager of Walmart Business, shared how the company is leveraging its massive retail infrastructure to serve organizational customers with purpose-built tools and experiences.
Finding the Hidden Customer Base
The story of Walmart Business begins with data analysis. While leading enterprise strategy, Hubka’s team dove into customer patterns and realized something significant: countless organizations were already choosing Walmart for their purchasing needs, shopping both in-store and online alongside individual consumers.
“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,” Hubka explained.
This insight led to a clear purpose: save businesses, nonprofits, and government entities time, money, and hassle so they can focus on their core missions. The solution? An omnichannel platform specifically designed for organizational purchasing.
Business-Specific Tools That Make a Difference
Walmart Business operates through business.walmart.com and a dedicated mobile app, but what sets it apart isn’t just the storefront. It’s the features built specifically for how organizations operate.
Take business printing as an example. Through kiosks in stores or online, businesses can access a wide range of marketing templates for business cards, flyers, and signage. For a local coffee shop, this means creating professional marketing materials without outsourcing to a print shop.
Automated purchasing through subscriptions addresses another critical business need: predictable supply chains. That same coffee shop can put essentials like cups and napkins on automatic delivery schedules, ensuring they never run out while maintaining full control over timing and quantities.
Spend management tools offer capabilities like multi-user accounts, approval flows, and detailed analytics. Organizations can slice and dice their spending by time period, category, or user, all of which are essential for financial planning and compliance.
Omnichannel Flexibility Meets Business Operations
One of Walmart Business’s key advantages is delivery flexibility that matches how organizations actually operate. The platform offers one-tap curbside pickup, next-day and two-day shipping, and express delivery from stores.
Hubka illustrated this with a practical scenario: “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.”
This operational agility, i.e. choosing how and when to receive orders based on immediate needs, transforms purchasing from a time-consuming task into a seamless background process.
Financial Tools for Organizational Purchasing
Beyond logistics, Walmart Business addresses how organizations manage finances differently from individual consumers. The platform offers pay-by-invoice capabilities, allowing verified businesses to check out using purchase order numbers and pay with net 30 terms.
This might seem like a small feature, but for organizations managing cash flow, compliance requirements, and approval processes, the ability to invoice rather than pay immediately at checkout is worth noting.
Walmart Business Plus: Membership with Organizational Benefits
Similar to Walmart+ for individual consumers, Walmart Business Plus serves as a membership program with benefits tailored for organizations. While businesses can use Walmart Business with a free verified account, the plus membership adds value through features like free shipping with no minimum, free delivery from stores for orders over $35, and enhanced spend management analytics.
These analytics tools let businesses examine their purchasing patterns in granular detail, exactly the kind of operational intelligence that helps organizations optimize spending and identify cost-saving opportunities.
Looking Ahead: Expanding B2B Capabilities
As Walmart Business looks toward 2026 and beyond, Hubka’s focus remains on earning trust and increasing share of wallet among organizational customers. The roadmap includes expanding assortment with more B2B-oriented products, larger pack sizes, and industry-specific items.
“We will introduce additional spend management tools,” Hubka noted. “That’s just a really big part of how organizations operate. And we will expand pay by invoice.”
These enhancements signal Walmart’s commitment to building a comprehensive B2B platform, not just adapting retail experiences for organizational buyers.
The One Plus One Equals Three Approach
Walmart Business exemplifies what happens when retail infrastructure meets targeted innovation. By recognizing that organizational customers have distinct needs, Walmart created a platform that leverages existing strengths, its massive assortment, everyday low prices, sophisticated logistics, etc., while adding business-specific capabilities.
The result is a B2B platform that serves millions of organizations with tools that actually match how they operate, purchase, and grow. From coffee shops to nonprofits to government entities, Walmart Business demonstrates that the future of B2B e-commerce lies in combining retail scale with purpose-built organizational tools.
For businesses tired of juggling multiple vendors, manual ordering processes, and limited delivery options, Walmart’s B2B platform offers a compelling alternative: one platform, countless possibilities, and the backing of retail’s most sophisticated supply chain.
Omni Talk® is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga founded Omni Talk® in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail.