Senior VP, Health & Wellness Merchandising

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Wal­mart and Sam’s Club are among the mass retailers playing a vital role in helping reopen the country and end the pandemic, says Julie Barber, senior vice president of health and wellness merchandising at Walmart U.S.

Julie Barber

In the pandemic’s early days, retailers served as the first line of defense, with initiatives to keep stores open and shelves stocked with everyday essentials. More recently, Walmart has been among national chains vaccinating people against the SARS-CoV-2 virus and offering over-the-counter COVID-19 test kits.

It has been a challenging time that has also demonstrated the value of what Walmart can do for its customers and communities.

“Over the past year we’ve all had to learn new skills and take on initiatives that had not been done before,” Barber says. “For Walmart health and wellness that meant opening up thousands of our parking lots across the country to administer COVID testing in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services or collaborating with our suppliers to help source and donate PPE for health care providers. I am so proud of what Walmart was able to do to help our communities.”

The past year has also demonstrated the important role that Walmart’s health and wellness merchandising team could play, Barber says, noting that her group now includes an omni merchant team that leads both the stores and dot-com business. “We also built out a Business Development team to help us accelerate our growth in key areas,” Barber explains.

Barber, who began her Walmart career in 2005 as an analyst in the company’s money service department, became vice president and divisional merchandise manager for O-T-C merchandising in 2019, and was promoted to her current position last August.

O-T-C medicines are a vital category within the consumables business, both as a proven trip driver and as the vanguard of personal health care and maintenance. Barber points out that growing consumer consciousness of health care has resulted in customers showing increasing interest in prevention, immunity and general well-being. COVID-19 only accelerated that trend.

“Throughout the pandemic, customers stocked up on pain relievers and O-T-C medications, but we also saw them take a much more proactive approach to their health and well-being,” Barber says. “Vitamins and supplements saw huge increases and, in fact, our own Spring Valley line of vitamins became a billion-dollar brand as customers added vitamins to their regimen while also looking for good value.”

Looking ahead, Barber sees more opportunities for Walmart.

“We’ll continue to lean into personal nutrition and wellness,” she says. “We’ve already brought several brands, many of which were previously only available directly from the supplier, into our stores and on walmart.com. We’re creating greater access to health and wellness brands, including GNC, Roman for Men and Goli. We are also renewing our focus on making it easy to shop and targeting customer need states in-store and on site. We are also focusing on customer solutions and not limiting ourselves to just physical product. In most cases there is a digital component that may be the lead solution to ensuring customer success. Whether in the form of education or an actual solution, we know digital will continue to play a larger part on this customer journey.”