For those in person, thank you very much, for being here in this 2023 Walmex Day. Thank you for your interest in the company. Thanks to those joining us over the web. Many of you have been part of this meeting in past years. I see familiar faces. Most of you are familiar to us, and many of you have been following what the company has been doing. You have been investing in the company for years, and many of you have trusted the company, the strategy, and the team. Today, I want to say thank you for your trust. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to share our plans for the future, a dynamic one, a future you can trust. We evolve to go beyond the walls of the stores.
[crosstalk] We evolve from offering stores in the shelves to offering solutions in our ecosystem. We evolve from consumer goods to long-lasting solutions. Last years have been catalyzers in so many ways. We've been moving from a solid stores business with a modest e-commerce business to an omni-channel model. We'll explain more about this. We're reinventing ourselves in order to become the preferred ecosystem for all customers. An ecosystem centered in customers, driven by customers, a system that offers solutions to our customers, an ecosystem that accelerates our growth. We focus on customers. By bringing the business to the next level, we have so much more to offer to our stakeholders, to the Mexican people, and people from Central America. What are the results of the platform to drive this growth?
[crosstalk] One of the results is the compliance or having met the long-term profitability rates. I'll show some consolidated numbers. In 2015, total sales with our colleagues, we shared with you our objective of doubling the business in 10 years and increasing our profit faster than sales. I'm very proud to say and to share with you that we'll meet this objective in less than 9 years, including the disinvestment of Suburbia. Back in the past, we were the big company. When we set the company, so we were able to add MXN 380 billion pesos in sales and more than MXN 30 billion in profits. I still see many opportunities ahead of us, many opportunities to construct an even stronger company. Another result is the construction of very sound foundation.
[crosstalk] In these eight years, we opened 766 stores. Many persons were not sure that we were able to do that, adding more than 1 million square meters. We offered low prices to new customers in new 140 localities where we were not present. There are many localities that did not have modern distribution channels before we got there. In this period, we opened 8 distribution centers. We built a profitable e-commerce On Demand operation, a profitable one in 1,000 stores and clubs. We equipped hundreds of stores with the pickup and extended assortment kiosks. We launched a marketplace. We reached 5.1 online sales penetration coming from less than 1% in 2015. We launched BAIT and reached 5.6 million active users. We launched Cashi and reached over 5.4 million total users.
[crosstalk] I want to stop here and give you good news. We just received authorization from the Mexican Financial Authorities to open a fintech that will allow us to grow Cashi. You'll get more information about this. We launched Walmart Connect that reached MXN 2.1 billion last year. Today, we have the talent, we have the financial strength, we have the discipline to execute. Above all, we have the loyalty of our customers to propel us forward. Let's talk about 2022. Despite the short-term challenges, we managed to deliver against our financial and strategic goals. Consolidated revenue reached MXN 119 billion. We are now a $40 billion revenue company. In Mexico, we grew same-stores sales and EPS ahead of the self-services and clubs market measured by ANTAD. I have to confess that I have mixed feelings about this number.
[crosstalk] at least that even with the atypical behavior during the pandemic and the investments in prices, we grew over the market. I trust we'll perform better. I don't like the 10 basis points. EBITDA margin was at 10.7% despite higher fixed costs and strategic investments. You'll learn more about this. GMV grew 19%, resulting in a 340% three-year stacked growth. We reached important milestones for our mission to become the ecosystem of choice with 13 million total users between BAIT and Cashi combined. Operating with discipline and listening to customers, we were able to balance the short- and the long-term of our business. Another one of the results, strong returns for shareholders. Despite challenges, we've delivered results through economic cycles. We have demonstrated our resilience. We have proven our ability to innovate.
[crosstalk] We have low cost that translate into best-in-class margins despite aggressive price investments. We have increased our ROIC by 550 basis points. We reached the maximum share price every year since 2018. We kept a high and consistent dividend yield. All of you who trusted us and invested in Walmex's shares at the end of 2014 when we launched the strategy had a 162% returns by the end of 2022, considering capital gains and dividends. We have achieved so much, and the best thing is that we will achieve even more in the future. These results give us the confidence to continue to transform our business and to accelerate growth. The store is shifting into the only place where people convene to buy their basic needs into the place where we recruit non-digital customers to become digital.
[crosstalk] We are building the ecosystem that connects customers to the benefits of the digital economy. We are building the ecosystem that offers solutions to the main needs of our customers, we are building the ecosystem that provides access. Access to solutions and benefits, that could only be done through digital. Solutions like online shopping, solutions like connectivity, solutions like financial services, solutions like health memberships, solutions that will make the lives of our customers so much better in Mexico and Central America. What are the exponential opportunities that we have by providing solutions for customers? Let me talk about our strategic priorities and focus from now on Mexico and later today, Flavio Cotini, our CEO of Central America, will provide more details about our plans for the region. The first exponential opportunity is to win in discounts. I'm talking about all the stores.
[crosstalk] All the stores are based on discounts. Our company was founded with the purpose of saving people money and helping them live better lives. We reach millions of customers with our value proposition. Our stores have been there for years to provide customers access to basic needs at the lowest prices. Now, our stores are evolving to deliver our value proposition that go beyond traditional retail. Yes, we have evolved, but what remains constant is our priority to win in discounts. We know that to win in discounts, we need to focus on four areas. The first area is price. We'll continue to be the primary reference for value in an omni-channel way through a holistic customer value proposition in each format. The second one is our brands.
[crosstalk] We will continue to be the first omni-channel brand choice for customers and members, providing access to quality and value-for-money products that generate loyalty and traffic. The third one is fresh. For perishable, we will improve customers' perception of our perishable departments through better quality and a simpler operating model. The last one is end-to-end productivity. We will continue to innovate the whole domain and optimize our inventory to maintain the lowest operations cost. The second exponential opportunity is to lead in omni-channel. Our goal is to serve customers how, when, where they want to be served. To achieve this, we will continue to expand a model that will meet customers' needs, a model that's scalable and yet sustainable. In these past years, we have consolidated our On Demand operations, reaching 1,000 stores.
[crosstalk] A couple of years ago, we started to invest more aggressively in OnePe and Marketplace to accelerate this, the results. We are leveraging our assets to build the greatest omni-channel platform in Mexico. We are positioning the business for long-term success. We still have a lot to do to reach our ambition. Going forward, we'll continue to build a digital and flexible store and distribution network by continuously updating the shopping experience for current and future customers. We will reach new customers through a winning assortment, supported by analytics and automated processes, leveraging real-time data. We will continue to offer a simple, personalized, and omni-channel shopping experience, integrating all Walmart services in an open ecosystem that is low cost and convenient for our customers. The opportunity ahead of us is huge.
[crosstalk] In the next presentation, Ignacio and Dolores will detail our plans to win in discount and to lead in omni-channel. You'll visit the store to see what we are talking about. The third exponential opportunity is to become the ecosystem of choice. Our concept of ecosystem has been evolving as we scale the new businesses and listen to our customers. When we first started, we were focused on solving customers' pain points around the shopping experience. Pain points such as the lack of affordable connectivity or low financial inclusion. To address all these pain points, we began connecting our assets in a mutually reinforced way. We implemented technologies to offer customers full solutions to the pain points. We help customers to go beyond retail, to become the ecosystem of choice and accelerate growth.
[crosstalk] Now that we have the main verticals in place, we are evolving from multiple synergies between the assets to multiple customer benefits. Going forward, we will continue to focus on financial services, connectivity, and advertising. We're adding a new vertical, which I am personally very excited about, which is an accessible health membership, and that is in ongoing need in our customers. Betty will talk more about it. Marcelino and Betty, at least, will talk about our detailed plans to be the ecosystem of choice. These are the opportunities that we have to accelerate our growth. It's not about format, it's not about just stores and clubs. It's not about the boundaries of our walls. What makes these opportunities to become even more powerful is that we are focused on our customers.
[crosstalk] We see the 6 million customers that shop daily at our stores in Mexico and in Central America as our tremendous strength. We see our 6 million daily customers giving us an unlimited growth potential. How can we increase our growth potential by providing solutions for customers? You've heard us talk about Andrea, our customer. Now we are moving her forward to have more opportunities. Opportunities like BAIT, Bodega Aurrerá, internet, phone services. By offering Andrea a reliable and affordable connectivity service, we are granting her access to the benefits of the digital economy. We're helping her to save in one of her main expenses, which is telecommunications. We are rewarding her loyalty with free data every time she shops with us. She shops more, she saves more. She shops more, she saves more.
[crosstalk] We create a cycle that builds traffic in our businesses, a cycle that builds growth. 18 months after we launched BAIT, we reached 1 million users at the end of 2021, and today we have almost 8 million users two and a half years later. Just as a reference for all of you, it took the most successful MVNO in the U.K. about 12 years to reach the scale that we reached in a couple of years. One of the largest MVNOs in Mexico took four years to reach 1 million users. In this way, today, we are able to offer Andrea not just a mobile phone at a low cost. Today, we can offer Andrea so many solutions and so many benefits. Let's imagine Andrea's journey, and you'll be able to witness this in the store.
[crosstalk] Andrea goes to the nearest Bodega Aurrerá to collect the remittances that her brother collects in the United States. September, based on Andrea's historical shopping data, she receives a notification with a pre-approved credit in Cashi and wallet. Andrea gets so excited that she starts to look for a TV in our electronics department so she can watch her favorite TV shows with her family. Andrea doesn't find exactly in the store what she's looking for, she browses through our marketplace on the kiosk that, you know, in the store. Andrea realizes that she can use her Cashi credit also to shop online, and that she will get the TV delivered free directly at her house. Out of 10 customers, 10 don't have a car. Andrea finally finds her TV, and she decides to add an extended warranty to protect her purchase.
[crosstalk] While paying for the TV, Andrea finds out that she can get BAIT internet and a streaming package for a very low cost. This does not stop here. Given that Andrea has enjoyed many of the benefits we offer, she receives another notification with a pre-approved credit, this time for a new mobile phone with a preloaded BAIT line, so she can upgrade the one she has. The cycle grows bigger, the cycle grows stronger, the cycle accelerate our growth. Last year, we started to test a new benefit for Andrea, a healthcare membership. We would like to provide Mexican families with access to a trusted first contact healthcare ecosystem. We know there is a customer pain point. We know there is a market need. We know we have a unique position to solve that pain point. We are going forward.
[crosstalk] We are leveraging our assets and using technology to provide a comprehensive solution for our customers. Last year, we started a pilot project to offer a low-cost health membership by partnering with a third party. This membership cost starts as low as MXN 30 pesos per month, and it offers so many discounts and benefits, and you'll see this directly in a store. In the pilot project, about 300,000 customers got a membership in the test. Now we have rolled out to every store. Beatriz will tell you more about our future plans with this membership. These examples demonstrate how much potential we can unlock by making the customers our central focus, by focusing on solutions, not only on products, by opening doors for our customers that go beyond the retail. We know that to enable our growth potential, we need to invest.
[crosstalk] What are the investments that we are making to accelerate growth? We are investing in four enablers, mainly. One of the enablers is customer centricity and data. As I said earlier, customers are our biggest fans. Last year, we established a customer office, and we hired a chief customer officer. His name is Tomás Durandeau, and you will get to know him later in the presentation. Tomás and his team are helping, are promoting us to continue to infuse customer centricity in everything we do. They are helping us to get to know customers better through data and analytics. They are helping us to keep customers always at the center of our decisions. Another one of the enablers: technology. The ecosystem we are creating is all about connections and solutions, and technology brings this all together.
[crosstalk] We are investing behind e-commerce platforms and other customer-facing initiatives such as BAIT and Cashi. We are investing in analytics capabilities to get to know customers better, to adapt faster and to be more predictive. We are investing in automation to help associates at stores and distribution centers to do their jobs easier and with greater safety. Another one of the enablers is our supply chain. Our omni-channel business is backed by one of the most extensive supply chains in the country. In the last eight years, we opened eight new distribution centers, adding more than 200,000 square meters to our capacity. We modernized our last mile operations with a crowdsourcing model, exchange points and delivery stations. What I am most proud about is that we increased the supply chain's MPAs by 700 basis points compared to 2021, reaching an all-time high.
[crosstalk] Going forward, we will continue to add capacity to reach even more customers. We will continue to modernize and to make distribution centers even more flexible. We will continue to transform our network to serve customers the way they want to be served. Another one of the enablers is to have the best talents. We are a people-based business. We know the success of our associates is the success of our company. We have an opportunity and a responsibility to prepare them for the future. We will continue to invest behind the associate value proposition. We will continue to upskill and reskill associates to prepare them for new challenges. You may remember past visits. You may remember, watching them, moving papers from one place to another. Now, there's a lot of automation.
[crosstalk] We will continue to empower associates to make the difference for our customers because technology is nonsense, data is nonsense if associates are not empowered. So far today, you've heard about results, strategy, and the investments we intend to make. In the future, we are mindful that as we transform our business, we need to deliver results. How do we sustain momentum in this challenging environment? One of the ways in which we will sustain momentum is by keeping true to our Everyday Low Price philosophy. In 2022, when we started to see inflation increasing, we further reinforced EDLP to help our customers to navigate through difficult times. We took a long-term view on pricing, and we invested aggressively to expand our price gap. Customers appreciated it and rewarded us with their loyalty. Even when our market share gain was not so big last year.
[crosstalk] As inflation evolves throughout the year, we will continue to be there for customers, deliver low prices, delivering solutions to help them afford whatever they want to buy. Another way in which we will sustain momentum is by managing expenses with discipline and by fostering an EDLC mentality. We know the cost of doing businesses in Mexico has increased a lot in the recent years, and it will continue doing so. We know it is more challenging to self-fund strategic investments. We are confident that we will be able to invest while providing best-in-class returns. Pablo will talk more about it. We will work further to get the expense rate down in a sustainable way. Today, you will see so many examples of what we are doing during your visits to the stores.
[crosstalk] Above all, the way in which we will maintain momentum is by having the best talent, the fourth enabler. Our executive committee has evolved as we implement our strategy. I am very proud about the diversity and experience of our staff. Let me introduce our leadership team, the team that's turning challenges into opportunities, the team that's converting our strategy into reality, the team that's providing solutions for customers to accelerate our growth. Ignacio, Nacho, Chief Operating Officer. Dolores, CMO for self-services. You'll notice that in my opinion, there are too many Argentinians, you know, during the recent World Cup, they outstand. I didn't like that. We have Gaston in charge of the real estate and supply chains. Eduardo, in charge of people. Fabio, CFO for Walmex North America. Paulo, our CFO. Marcelino, in charge of financial services.
[crosstalk] Beatriz in the growth office. Adriana in the compliance and ethics office. Alberto in charge of legal and prevention. Javier in charge of corporate affairs. Jerome in charge of strategy. Sravana in charge of technology. Tomás in charge of the Customer Office. We have shared our long-term vision and our 2023 priorities. Now let me talk about how we are creating value for our stakeholders in the long and the short term. As we look at the challenges that the world faces today, such as climate change, biodiversity losses, and poor economic inequality, we appreciate the impact that we have on the planet. Even though the size of the company entails where responsibility, it also means great opportunity to use our scale for good, to help customers, to help associates, to help communities, and why not to help the planet?
[crosstalk] We have the ambition of becoming a fully regenerative company by 2040. To achieve so, we'll focus on four pillars: opportunity, sustainability, community, and ethics and integrity. You'll be able to see all the progress we achieved in 2022 and our plans for each one of these pillars in our annual report 2022 that will be available today. Yes. Going forward, we see becoming a regenerative company, not just as a promise, but as a commitment. We see our stores not just as the core of our business, but catalysts for new services. We see our scale not just as leverage, but as an unmatched opportunity to deliver solutions. Solutions that will drive exponential growth for our stakeholders. Solutions that will address the pain point of our customers. Solutions that will help customers in Mexico and Central America to live better, to live better lives.
[crosstalk] In that goal, I was mentioning that Dolores and Ignacio were going to talk about exponential opportunities. Now it's time for you to listen from her, the plans to win in discount and be leaders in omni-channel. Thank you very much.
[crosstalk] Good morning. Thank you for being here. Thanks for coming here today. Thank you for your interest in our company. It's great to see some familiar faces. That means that you're following us with attention. I'm Ignacio Caride, Omni-channel CEO of Walmart de México. With me, Dolores Fernandez, CMO of Walmart de México. We are here together because we need an omni- view of our customers. We need an omni view of the solutions. In the presentation, you will see the alignment is powerful. Together, our teams are delivering meaningful solutions for our customers. As Gui was saying, the stores are the core of our strategy. The stores will be the core of our omni-channel goods delivery to our customers. The stores will be the core of customer service with more than 5 million daily customers visits.
[crosstalk] The stores will be the core of our health services, the stores will be the catalyst for our ecosystem. Our core business enable us to offer omni- solutions. Today, Dolores and I, together, will share with you highlights that prove that we are strengthening the core in our strategy. Together, we'll show you the priorities, where we're focusing on to Win in Discount and lead in omni. Our customers and the market are evolving very fast. We have evolved with them into a truly omni-channel company, and now we're going beyond to be an ecosystem of choice. This is an ecosystem that starts with a strong store that serves as a point to convene for customers, an ecosystem that builds upon our brick-and-mortar strength to offer a seamless omni-channel shopping experience. An ecosystem that goes beyond retail to accelerate growth.
[crosstalk] Becoming omni-channel was a great challenge, and it implied bold decisions. Now we know it was the right call, and now we can leverage on what we have built to serve customers, how, where, and when they want to be served, at the lowest price. As we transformed our company, we went through one of the most challenging times in our company. Remember the pandemic, that it also generated supply chain disruptions. At the same time, high and persistent inflation. This obviously generated rapid changing customer habits, the way that they were buying and the type of products that they were buying. We took these challenges as an opportunity to be closer to our customers, as an opportunity to be true to our value proposition, as an opportunity to innovate and come out of this period as an even stronger company.
[crosstalk] What highlights of last year prove that we are on the right track to accelerate growth going forward? Gui always tells us that we need to focus on what we can control, that is exactly what we did last year. We knew our customers needed our help to cope with increasing prices, we focused on developing initiatives to help them save money and afford a full basket. What were those initiatives? One of those initiatives was prices. We invested aggressively in prices and expanded our price gap by more than 100 basis points versus 2021, reaching historical levels at Bodega. Another one of the initiatives was our brands. We reinforced our brand offering, launching new items with great quality and price. Our brand share of sales increased 80 basis points, I want to highlight Sam's Club, where their share grew 260 basis points.
[crosstalk] Member's Mark is key to drive value to our Sam's members because they can find exclusive items at great prices. That is one of the reasons that Sam's performance continues to be at a very high levels. Another example is our brand, Great Value, in which we have improved the NPS experience more than 300 basis points. This proves that we are on the right track. Another one of the initiatives that we implemented was assortment. We start implementation of an optimum assortment supported by omni strategy. Let me give you a couple of examples of things we did. During 2022, in Walmart Supercenter, we analyzed and reduced the number of SKUs at stores reduces by 40%. With this change, we increased only sales channels by 30%. Another example are TV screens. We reduced the number of items available at the store by 10%.
[crosstalk] We adding 1,500 SKUs in extended assortment in the digital channel. This strategy resulted in a increase of at 18% of sales at stores and 45% increase in online sales. This combination of our different channels enable us to set the right product in the right channel while having efficiency at sales floor, something key for our business. Another one of the initiatives was productivity and Everyday Low Cost. ELC. We continued with the Self-Checkout Rollout. Now more than 200 daily stores are enabled with this technology, including six base. We have more than 1,450 Self-Checkout Stations. Currently, that we have implemented, 40% of transactions go through the Self-Checkout Stations. 40%. Our strategy is a growth strategy. Our stores are really evolving.
[crosstalk] We want to reach to even more customers. We want to give them access to the best prices, access to low-cost services, and access to an ecosystem that offers benefits so people in Mexico can live better. What were the investments that we made that give us the platform to accelerate our growth going forward? One of the investments was these stores. We opened 108 stores in our four formats, six of which integrates regenerative initiatives to keep impacting our community and environment, bringing our value proposition to 17 places where we didn't have presence before. The stores are now access points to low prices, to connectivity, to financial services, and to new and exciting opportunities. Another one of the investments was On Demand.
We expanded, especially in Bodega, our online offering, by increasing the number of stores with On Demand services now to 1,000 stores offering this service. These services are delivering 95% of On Demand orders in 24 hours or less, powered by our crowdsourcing model that is now present in 366 stores. Today, more than 30% of On Demand sales are done by our program, Walmart Pass users, who have a frequency of 3.3 times comparing to the users that are non-users that are buying in two times a month. We've built an On Demand business that is scalable, sustainable, and profitable by leveraging our unique positioning with all our assets and all our capacities. Another one of the investments was extend assortment. During 2022, we invested in technology.
One of the main technology initiatives was implementation of Walmart Fulfillment Services, WFS, which enable us to deliver our top sellers products more efficiently to customers. In 2022, we duplicated our sellers base, and we increased the number of SKUs by 72%, resulting in a 28% growth. Another one of the investments was talent. We continue to invest behind our associates value proposition, so Walmart can be that place where associates can be, grow, and belong. Our actions improved our commitment evaluation of the associates, improved by 600 BPS. For example, one of the main initiatives was to reinforce our associates benefits through extended maternity, for example, from three to five months. Our strategy is now resonating with customers, and they are rewarding us with their loyalty, enhancing our customer value proposition, offering the lowest prices, offering solutions to our customers' main pain points.
We now are able to gain market share for the ninth consecutive year and to increase our omni-channel NPS once more.
[crosstalk] Thanks, Ignacio. That was great. The key of our success has been the implementation of these end-to-end initiatives with an omni-channel vision that strengthen the core of our business. Ignacio just shared with you the initiatives achievements that we implemented to Win In Discount. Let me tell you now what are the initiatives that will strengthen our core business in our business in Win in Discounts year. One of those initiatives is continuing to reinforce Everyday Low Prices, showing consistency and stability in prices through simple communication. We generate trust with our customers. Additionally to stability, we look for our brands. In 2022, we had historic results, as we just saw. This 2023, we're gonna keep investing. We look to create value for our customers.
[crosstalk] It is a perfect combination between quality and price. Another one of the initiatives is our brands. As we just shared last year, our ambition is to double share of sales by 2026. During this 2022, we had a huge acceleration, paving the way to this ambition. What are we gonna focus now in this 2023 to accelerate this? First, we will continue implementing our product and brand strategy to drive brand awareness. Second, we will reinforce our quality thanks to the revision in all the products of our assortment, the technical specifications and quality that we adjusted in this 2022. Third, we will continue developing innovation and differentiation. During this 2023, we will release more than 650 SKUs of our brands.
Lastly, we will continue developing strategic relationships with vendors to ensure capacity and availability dedicated to ambition that we have to 2026. Let me tell you a little story connected to our brands. The last time I visited a Bodega, I found a customer with her shopping cart full of Aurora items. I was impressed, and why only products of our brands, and I asked her why she was just buying products of our brands. She said, "These items are good. I really trust in their quality, and the prices are lower, so I can afford to buy some treats for my kids." That's what the customer said to me. That's the power of our brands. Finding these kind of stories on each of our stores confirms that our actions are aligned to our purpose, to save money to people so they can live better.
Another one of these initiatives to win on discount is fresh. We talked about fresh before. It is a traffic generation area for loyalty and price perception. Investing in fresh is a priority. We are focused on three main points for this. First, quality. Again, we will guarantee best quality aligned to the CVP of each format. We increase the criteria in processes and specifications. We will strengthen our omni-channel process to improve the end-to-end customer journey. We have a unique competitive advantage to deliver quality and freshness with speed depending on our customers' needs. We have a solid infrastructure, logistics, and also powered by suppliers that are strategic to deliver a best-in-class experience that our customers can afford. Third one is productivity. We'll accelerate the implementation of a simpler operating model by centralizing processes in bakery, meat, and seafood.
The last initiative to win on discount is our end-to-end productivity, as we were mentioning at the beginning. This will lead us to keep investing in low prices for our customers. We have mentioned that our stores are the core of our business. Together we will continue to strengthen through what? First, investment on innovation and automation to offer a seamless experience for associates and customers. You are going to see some of these examples at stores when we made the visits today. For example, the RFID or radio frequency that will reduce inventory times or the robots for fast picking. Also, we will continue to reinforce productivity at source, inventory days management through an optimal omni assortment, as Ignacio was saying. Finally, process simplification.
You will see some examples at stores like simplification in signing, reducing the required time in the tasks, so our associates can have more time to serve our customers at sales floor. These are all the initiatives that will take us to a different place in Win in Discount. What are we doing to strengthen again our leadership in Omni? It is amazing to see everything that we have achieved in terms of omni-channel, but it's even more encouraging to see, as we were mentioning at the beginning, the great potential going forward. As Gui said, we are recruiting new digital customers at our stores, and they deserve the best omni- experience. One of the initiatives to continue leading in terms of growth versus the market in this omni strategy is the categories.
This is our new way of working to really create an omni- business with the best assortment available for our customers, whatever and whenever they decide to purchase. We review their processes to infuse customer centricity and to foster an end-to-end view in order to have an integral commercial offering and not strategies defined in silos by channel. With this strategy, we are also building efficiency in our sales floor by reducing SKUs while strengthening e-commerce catalog. This new way of working involves a mindset shift and the evolution of our missions with new capabilities and skills to lead an omni-channel business. Another initiative to win on our customers preference and accelerate our growth is the evolution and acceleration of our business models On Demand and extended assortment.
If we talk about On Demand, the initiatives that we have to strengthen this business are, first, to consolidate Walmart Pass in Walmart and Walmart Express, rewarding our more loyal customers, providing them some special benefits like free delivery or early access to events. Second, we will continue accelerating the implementation of Despensa a tu Casa. We already mentioned the great benefits and how we're gonna accelerate that in 2022. 2023, we're gonna enable greater service to customers in Bodega, and we're gonna invest in productivity in our stores to increase our capability, duplicating orders, growing sales at high double- digit. We need the potential we have in On Demand with fresh, as which is mentioned, and we have the ambition to lead the experience. The industry that we offer to our customers.
[crosstalk] We will improve internal processes to ensure freshness of these items to the door of customers. With the specialization of our pickers, we will offer delivering our best in class experience. In terms of online payments, we will enable this capability for Bodega, and we will fully integrate our Cashi vertical to all our omni- business experience to help customers to shop online and enjoy the benefits of being part of the ecosystem. Lastly, to accelerate the Extended Assortment, we will accelerate our marketplace, and we will keep investing in technology to create a seamless experience for our customers. We will accelerate our marketplace, duplicating again the number of sellers. Ignacio was saying that we duplicated them into 2022. 2023, we will duplicate that number of sellers again to create a superior assortment.
We will also expand to the cross-border, adding more than 600 international vendors. We'll continue with the tech stack modernization. For example, during 2023, we will finish the implementation of our platform, Walmart Glass. This will allow us to improve the user experience and look for capabilities that we have. Lastly, to reinforce our omni-shopping experience, we will leverage our core business and our ecosystem to provide full solutions. We need to provide the best service. We will continue enhancing our e-commerce operation, focusing on delivery times, NPS, and assortment, and we will personalize our omni-channel shopping experience through an ecosystem that is convenient and low cost. We are committed to continue investing in talent, technology, and our supply chain. We are committed to accelerate our extended assortment growth. We are committed to serve our customers with the best service in a transparent and omni-channel way.
The core of our business in our stores, they are going to be our catalyst for growth. Together, we will build the best ecosystem for our customers. Thank you, Dolores. Enhancing our omni-channel operations is a key priority for us because our stores are the main entry point to our ecosystem. We have stores 10 minutes away of almost 90% of the population in the main cities. Our reach is a big competitive advantage that allows us to come closer to our customers. You heard Dolores about our plan. We're working together. We are committed to all our initiatives to strengthen our core business and accelerate our growth. Our plan to win is ambitious. Stores are the core of our omni-channel business, we can offer customers thousands of affordable products.
We can offer delivery options like pickup. We can help customers to become digital through our kiosks. We can offer additionally credit alternatives depending on the different customer needs. We can offer customers end-to-end solutions. Stores will be catalyst for our ecosystem. Together, we will deliver meaningful solutions to let us to the full potential and accelerate our growth. We have an omni-channel view. Together, we can create a more powerful future. Now, I leave you with Beatriz and Marcelino that will talk about our plans to become the ecosystem of choice. Thank you very much.
[crosstalk] Good morning. I'm Beatriz Núñez, leader of our group office. As Gu i already mentioned, we are working to become the ecosystem of choice. We are accelerating access to mutually reinforcing benefits for our customers to live better. As we know, the core of our business is the stores. As Gui mentioned, we've evolved to provide access to products in the shelves, to provide access to services in the ecosystem. Every day, 5 million customers come to our stores and visit the e-commerce site. That is why they are still our catalyst for growth, and together with the solutions provided by each vertical, we are building the ecosystem of choice for our customers. Our ecosystem is driven by our customers' needs, so we focus on them to create solutions that solve those needs through interconnected and reinforcing benefits that deliver exponential business opportunities.
[crosstalk] This journey reflects how our customers can discover our ecosystem verticals, and each of them will serve as an entry point, providing our customers a seamless access to all the benefits, the products and the services that we provide, and you will see in our stores visit later. In 2022, our ecosystem verticals delivered solid results, and we are confident on their growth potential. Let's begin walking about BAIT Growth, our MVNO connectivity vertical. You previously heard that the Mexico connectivity represents a basic need in families' spending that continues to grow. More than 30% of Mexican families don't have access to connectivity at home. With BAIT, we keep reinforcing our customer value proposition by delivering the best connectivity at the best price and rewarding our customers with data for their purchases to help them live better.
[crosstalk] In less than two years, BAIT has achieved, as Gui mentioned, over 5.6 million active users. Almost 7.8 million total users. We are providing connectivity solutions beyond price, including mobile phones, credit solutions, home and portable connectivity, even reinforcing benefits with the rest our ecosystem verticals. Again, this is a virtuous circle that builds traffic and growth. In 2023, BAIT will continue to post accelerated growth. Our ecosystem is not only about B2C, but also B2B. In another example of 2022 great results in Walmart Connect, our retail advertising and media business. We are driving advertiser sales. At the same time, we improve our customers' experience by communicating product benefits and giving them the opportunity to get more value for their money.
[crosstalk] We have established relevant alliances with our commercial partners while helping brands connect with our customers more often and more meaningfully in an omni-channel way. In 2022, we doubled the brands we work with. In the 2022, about 400 big companies trusted us and ran more than 4,500 omni-channel campaigns. We are offering Walmart Connect services to our marketplace sellers, which has a high growth potential and is boosted by our marketplace acceleration, as Ignacio and Dolores said before. Our results have been driven by innovation, technology, and high business margins. We are leveraging on the most advanced in ad tech and data solutions like ad server, sponsored search, and our recent launch, DSP, Demand-Side Platform. We are evolving Plus to digital signage at the stores. We have an advertising business of more than MXN 2 billion with high margins.
[crosstalk] Walmart Connect already is one of the biggest media companies in Mexico and growing faster than most of them. In 2023, Walmart Connect will continue to be a profit driver and enabler for sustainable growth. As Gui has mentioned, I'd like to talk about our health solution and how we are building it. It all starts with understanding our customers' needs, these are our main findings. Currently, in Mexico, more than 25 million persons have a chronic condition, and the population continues to age. 14 million people are diagnosed with diabetes, and diabetes is the second cause of death in our country. Despite 93% of our population has access to public health services, unfortunately, Mexico has one of the lowest investment in public health. Finally, 85% of our population cannot consider receiving care in the private sector because of the cost.
[crosstalk] We've listened to our customers' needs and decided to launch our health membership that leverages our stores, almost 1,500 pharmacies and 500 doctors' offices. For only MXN 30 a month, our customers are able to access unlimited remote medical service, 24/7 nutrition services, psychology services, ambulance in case of emergency, discounts on the specialists, and last but not least, a 5% discount at our pharmacies and get consultation at our doctor's offices. We're looking to fulfill the ambition of providing access to reliable primary health solutions at the best price by leveraging our omni-channel infrastructure and proximity to our customers. In 2022, we deliver access to health solutions to more than 1 million patients, excluding pharmacy customers. In 2023, we'd like to develop health as a strong vertical.
[crosstalk] It's still in very early stages, but we know how relevant it is for our customers, and this is just starting. Now, Mache will tell us about the opportunities we are unlocking in terms of financial services in our ecosystem. Good morning. My name is Marcelino Herrera. You know me as Mache. I'm very pleased to be here with all of you, and I'd like to talk about financial services. I recently joined Walmart, and I'm very excited with the opportunity of contributing to the development of this very relevant piece of our ecosystem. Let me start reconfirming our priorities for financial services. As we said last year, and consistent with our strategy, we'll focus on three pillars drive our ambition. First of all, Cashi, our digital wallet, and we've heard about it during different presentations. Second, remittances, and third, credit solutions during 2022.
[crosstalk] We've learned from the business, we have the right talent and partners. We are ready to grow. Despite many players participating in the financial services landscape, we continue seeing pain points that we can solve for our customers. The most important one, providing access to the digital economy, which translates into further opportunities to participate in other solutions within financial services. Only 54 million adults have access to financial products, representing average 65% of total adult population. Many of them are already customers and only half of adults with financial products have a formal access to credit. Additionally, 11 million people receive remittances mostly in cash. Reaching 5 million households, remittances are one of the main sources of income in the country. What are we doing to reveal those pain points? In Cashi, we focus on enhancing the product's value proposition.
[crosstalk] For remittances, the focus was in increasing our collection points and to simplify processes. In credit, we enhanced the multi-product offering so more customers can have access. Let me deep dive in each of these pillars. Our M-vision is for Cashi to be the wallet of the customer, where our customers have all their financial products, just like a physical wallet. During last year, we focused on working on the new look and feel in the app, enabling it as a payment method for e-commerce, giving access for the first time to our unbanked customers to commercial events promotions like El Fin Irresistible. Before our customers needed a credit card to access to these promotions. We're building a stronger integration. We're simplifying the user experience.
[crosstalk] As Gui already mentioned, we're so happy to have received the approval yesterday to purchase a financial institution. We're so happy with this because with this, we'll be able to offer customers the option to open a digital account, that they can cash their remittances on a digital basis within the app, and so many more functionalities that will be created. They'll manage their money through the Walmex network to receive and send money or withdraw it. This is subject, of course, to last arrangements and hopefully we'll close the transaction in the upcoming weeks. Again, we're so happy to have a financial institution for electronic payments to offer more benefits and services to customers. Let me move to the second pillar, remittances as pointed before. Remittances are the largest currency inflow in the country.
[crosstalk] This money inflow plays a very important role for price-sensitive families in Mexico and Central America. During 2022, we focused on enabling two key elements: enabling service at all points of sales and stores, so we can leverage our physical footprint and standardizing collection processes and services, so we can provide a compelling experience to our customers. What are we working on? In enabling Cashi as a collection method for remittances, so we can incorporate some of these resources into the digital economy. Allowing the use of remittances as a payment method in the thousands of points of sales at our stores and continuing to improve the Walmart to Walmart experience, which we see as a huge opportunity to grow our share, leveraging on the Walmart scale across the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. Finally, the third pillar, credit solutions.
[crosstalk] Credit is a very important element of our financial services offering, given the limited credit alternatives that our customers have to afford buying discretionary or high-ticket items. Our solution is focused on connecting customers to lenders by building a multi-offer platform that improves access to more competitive credits, leveraging customer knowledge reinforced throughout the data of our ecosystem. We continue at an early stage of development. However, during 2022, we enabled almost 500,000 credits throughout the different solutions. What are we working on? Strengthening our lender base to increase our marketplace, offering customers more competitive alternatives based on their risk profile. Leveraging on the different connection points we have with our customers, so we can develop a Walmart customer data model that will provide more information to the lender, so we can assist customers to build a more robust credit profile.
[crosstalk] That's important to reduce risk and improve approval rates when it comes to credits. Finally, simplifying communication and execution at the stores. We'd like customers to know that in all Walmart formats, they are able to find credit solutions and can access them in a few minutes. These three pillars are just a part of the overall Walmart ecosystem. Its value is enhanced by the connection within all the verticals that Betty mentioned just a moment ago. We're building solutions to provide access to the millions of customers we serve. That access unlocks a huge potential in terms of experience to the customer and value creation. In summary, our main goal is to become the best financial services app in Mexico. We will continue to leverage our core assets, we will maintain our focus on three pillars to drive growth.
[crosstalk] I'd like to finish by saying I'm very honored in being part of the exciting opportunity we have ahead of us. Thank you for your attention. I leave you with Betty, who will finish our presentation.
[crosstalk] Thank you very much, Mache. You can see that the real power is in deep connections. In 2023, our ecosystem will continue to evolve. We've set ambitious goals for the year. We know leveraging the core of the business, reinforcing our vertical benefits, and delivering value to customers will help us to achieve the goals. We will keep you posted on the progress we make in every milestone we accomplish. As always, we will be very disciplined and we'll be guided by our agile way of working. We'll launch MVPs. We'll iterate and improve to provide the service our customers need, want, and deserve. As a Mexican, I'm very proud of the opportunity that Walmex is providing to Mexican families and the impact that we can deliver, as well as in Central America. Thank you very much for being here today.
[crosstalk] It was great seeing you all in person and being able to tell you such great news about our ecosystem.
[crosstalk] Now let's talk about Central America. There are two things before I pass the floor to Flavio Cotini, our CEO. There are a couple of things that, well, I want to talk about. The first one is the strategy. It's the same for Central America and Mexico. The only difference, it's timing. In Central America, we need to make first a job on putting stores where they have to be, fixing prices. We have a very gross margin that's very high, with a price differentiation that's very high and with a very high cost. Flavio and his team made a great effort during these last years to fix this. Now that the stores are not totally...
[crosstalk] I say stores, but, I mean, you can call business. They have progressed enough that we already started in, with Omni, and now Flavio will accelerate this a bit more according to the conditions that the market is demanding in order to move the business of only stores to omni-channel and ecosystem. We will start with a couple of things that Flavio will explain to you. I will not get rushed with that, but the strategy is the same one in Central America. The second thing that was not in the plans, but given the questions that you can have, I mean, I know that I have my network of espionage, and I think during the lunch time, there was a lot of questions and tough questions I think it's me to answer. Bigger question is when you're gonna sell Central America.
[crosstalk] I want to clarify that. We can save some time for those questions. What we say is that we see a great potential in Central America. We want to look for solutions, alternatives that will help us to achieve this potential. With everything that we're doing today with Omni Ecosystem, I think we have more in our place for what we can do. What's happening is, so far we haven't found a choice that can be better than us. That made your business that you saw the results Central America last year, they were amazing. The answer is always, we're always looking for strategic alternatives that allow us to have a higher return to you. We are looking for partners in the ecosystem. We're looking for solutions of where we're not focused enough. Never.
[crosstalk] We're always going to keep looking, but we're never going to stop doing everything that can create a benefit for all of you. Well, so far we haven't found any alternative for this strategy that we can manage the business better than Flavio and the team. Flavio questions, well, you will see why. No further ado, Flavio, where are you?
[crosstalk] I've been with the team for 35 years. I think he knows more than me. Thank you, Christian. Good afternoon. I'm Flavio Cotini, CEO of Walmart Centroamérica. Today, I will share Centroamérica's results and some of the key initiatives that allowed us to achieve these results, as well as an overview of our strategy moving forward. In 2022, we served more than 387 million transactions, 5% more than in 2021.
Every day, every hour, every second, we are focused on serving our customers. Over 1 million customers by data we visit that we are attending in Central America. Thanks to that, we improved results, and I can say it with a lot of humbleness, we developed great results. We improved our share of market. This metric that it is very important because it shows that we keep having the preference of our customers and loyalty. The self-service share has improved by 80 basis points, while our total share of market increased by 50 basis points versus last year. Our revenue has increased by 13%, while the operating income increased by 50 basis points in one year. A very strong progress. I would like to talk about some of the things that we are doing to keep earning our customers' preference.
Central America, 74% of people are local consumers. Sixty percent of them, their budget is spent on groceries and other basic needs. That's why we are serving customers in a better way through our Win in Discount initiative. It's our DNA. For discount and Bodega, we focus on price gap and price perception in an assortment for price seekers and customers on tight budget, mostly in some challenging times as we are experiencing today by the inflation last year. We also increased our share of our brands, our private brand by 200 basis points versus last year. The necessity of our customers during this high inflation period has led us to look for options for even lower price alternatives that can fit to their customers in their pocket. I'll give you one example that is quite interesting.
The other day, one of our VPs went to a gas station to fill up his tank to a gas station. The person who was serving, he said, "Sir, are you gonna have Zuli gas?" He asked, "Zuli is one of our brands." I said, "Why, why Zuli gas?" "Because it's one of our private brands, you know. It's good and it's affordable. It's cheap." We felt very glad for that because we reconfirmed that Zuli is positioned as a reference, as a low price and quality reference in the market, but even beyond our stores. I would like you to take a look at, in some past weeks, we found a video in social media that reflects this a little bit. Please take a look. It's fun, right? It's an organic video. Thank you. It was not sponsored by us.
It went viral and has more than 35,000 views. Probably the guy is probably monetizing the video already. This is a demonstration of the strength of our value proposition, of how our brands, like Zuli, are helping customers to save money and live better. Another action was to continue increasing the proximity to our customers. In 2022, we opened 18 new stores, from which 13 discounts and 5 Bodegas. We expanded our store count in the specific locations where we can keep helping people to save money. For supermarkets, we focused on quality and price that is very good for fresh. Quality and price that is undefeatable as creating a differentiated assortment which the customers need. For supercenters, we have created worlds, which is a special assortment, including family sizes, for those customers looking to optimize their shopping trip, their journey.
Some examples can be pets, babies, sports, beauty. This has helped us in all the value proposition. Also simplifying communication and signage in all our formats, optimizing price gap and perception for prices. Something very important that we did. As Gui mentioned before, our strategy in Central America is similar, identical to the one in Mexico, but in a different stage of maturity. These past years, we focused on consolidating our stores, and now we're ready to move forward in larger steps with the omni-channel and ecosystem. In Central America, over 60% of the population already has access to internet via their smartphones. By which is why we are setting the basis for omni-channel and the ecosystem. Our goal is to serve customers when and where they need it. We launched same-day deliveries. We focused on expanding our assortment in this 2022.
Our online assortment has been tripled, and now it has the same size to our in-store catalog. As a consequence, the NPS, the preference of our customer, increased 400 BPS versus last year. We worked hard to create an omni-channel seamless experience. Only 42% of Central America's population have access to financial services. In a region where the main or the prevailing payment method is cash. Remittances represent 15% of the gross domestic product of the region. That's very important. That's why we have enabled 100% of our stores with remittances collection platforms, which is the baseline for the future that we have forward. How do we create the resources to keep investing in a better customer experience for our customers? Our simplification agenda aims to reduce complexity and friction for our customers and associates.
Furthermore, it allows us to invest in delivering the best price, assortment, and experience for our customers. Some examples of these initiatives in 2022, we doubled the number of stores with self-scan and self-checkout, representing 60% of our stores. We also digitalized store processes to reduce paperwork, make our associates' lives easier, more agile, and the jobs more interesting. With an end-to-end approach, we increased assortment availability to 96%, improving store productivities by 3.5%, and our supply chain was increased 10%. From 121 to 133 cases per hour. That was a very significant progress. Now I'd like to share with you how we will continue to accelerate growth and drive omni-channel and ecosystem. Clearly, we have three strategic priorities, very similar to what Gui has mentioned before. First, win and discount.
[crosstalk] We want to serve our customers better by using our network of more than 800 stores in Centroamérica. We will continue to reinforce our customer value proposition by putting our customers in the center of everything we do, so that we can continue earning their trust, preference, loyalty, and this will be translated into accelerated growth. We will be becoming an omni-channel operation, wider, improving technology and operations in all our platforms with the goal of improving customer experiences. We also have an opportunity to deliver greater value through our ecosystem, and we see financial services as a starting point. We're gonna keep reducing frictions, simplifying for both customers and associates, while also creating the necessary resources to keep investing in better experiences for them. Finally, I would like to close with the following messages.
[crosstalk] Every year, every day, every hour, every second, we serve 387 in Central America. It's 1 million customers by day that we serve in Central America. We will continue to be committed to earn its loyalty, their loyalty, their preference. We will keep being a source of growth and profitability for Walmex. We'll continue creating value to all our stakeholders through the implementation of our strategy. Thank you very much. I will leave you with Paolo.
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. I think we still have 15 minutes or 20 before-.
Before we get to the session that I'm waiting for Q&A.
I'm gonna speak in Spanish. I think it's better. Maybe you can raise your hand if you don't understand.
I hope you've enjoyed the day so far.
You have heard today about our growth strategy and our vision.
...about how we are transforming this company.
A company that went from selling first needs to a company that is now Omni-Driven Ecosystem.
Centered driven by our customers.
You heard us talk about three strategic priorities. Win in Discount.
Leading omni and be the ecosystem.
[crosstalk] You also heard about the investments we are doing to build the capabilities we need to win in the future. Today, you visited three stores, experienced firsthand the implementation of our strategy. I hope you liked it, and also the operational excellence at sales floor. I hope you agree with me in that. Now I will talk about how all this translates into accelerated growth and value creation. Our company will continue to evolve to provide good solutions to our customers, supported by our financial discipline and operational excellence. We have been leveraging the assets that we have and building the enablers we need. We couldn't get into detail for that, but you can make questions. At the same time, we deliver strong results and keeping what we always call best-in-class returns. The best-in-class returns to our shareholders.
[crosstalk] The truth is that we look backwards in 2022, we experienced high levels of inflation and a macroeconomic challenging environment. However, we managed to achieve results that prove we are delivering accelerated and profitable growth in this environment. My colleagues are here, talked about some of these results. Let me highlight some of them. Just few. One of the results I wanted to talk about was growth. Last year, we delivered 11.3% total revenue growth, driven by a double-digit same sales growth in both Mexico and Central America, which is going pretty good. You heard Gui talk about this. Another one of the results is profitability. We generate an EBITDA of MXN 87.36 million. Again, you can ask me the one that always taking care of you about the returns.
[crosstalk] Last year, we increased the thoroughness per share at 11%. We delivered MXN 29.6 billion as dividends. Notably, and I would like to leave this clear, we always talk about that we achieved a ROIC of 20.2%, while reaching an historic price gap and invested in our strategic priorities. That's what we do what you're seeing. High ROIC looking for providing these high returns. For 2023, we know that we'll keep facing challenges and that the macroeconomic environment will be challenging. What will create some concerns in environment. We will focus in executing our strategy that with the correct talent, we hope it will help us to win in the future. Maybe I can talk a little bit about the results of our ecosystem.
[crosstalk] Leveraging our assets by investing in the capabilities we need, building connections that you also saw at stores, by getting to know our customers better because everything results from the pain points of our customers, we will be able to provide full solutions to our customers. Last year, we delivered sustainable growth across our ecosystem. Our verticals are in different stages of development, of growth. Some of them are more developed, some of them not so much. They will keep evolving at different speeds. That's what only we can expect, and our work is to connect those verticals. I would like to elaborate on Walmart Connect. Currently at stores, you saw the campaigns that we're doing with Walmart Connect. This vertical is our main focus on monetization.
[crosstalk] We can say that Walmart Connect is small versus what it can, what it can become, but it's big enough to mark a difference in our P&L. Walmart Connect actually is a great example of the synergy we can create in our ecosystem. It leverages our biggest asset, in this case, now in Mexico, 5 million customers every day that we serve our stores in Mexico, plus the visits that we have in our e-commerce sites. Actually helping our associates to create connections that can be relevant, significant with our customers, we can reinvest our assets and really create an additional source of profile in our income, having very high margins. With this revenue, we can reinvest in our ecosystem, in our strategy that we already shown. What for? To keep accelerating growth and creating value. Moving forward, we see unlimited potential.
[crosstalk] Leveraging ad tech tools and increasing the weight of digital advertising. There's a lot of space to grow, and the mix of monetization that we're gonna have in Walmart Connect will be changing. As my colleagues mentioned, we do have the capabilities and reach to accelerate growth. We have a unique position to build our ecosystem, to take our business beyond retail. You can see a lot of the reasons of why we are leveraging this. What are we leveraging at the end of the day? Leveraging our stores, leveraging our supply chain, leveraging our brands. With this, we'll be able to provide full solutions to our 6 million daily customers in Mexico and Central America. To continue solving their pain points and accelerate growth and value, which is what we aim at the end of the day as a consequence.
[crosstalk] To reverse our competitive advantages even further, we need to continue investing in capabilities and enablers. What are the investments we need to do to continue implementing our strategy and accelerate sustainable growth? This could be a slide that I think you were all expecting. Let me explain a little bit more. In 2023, we'll invest MXN 27.1 billion in Mexico and Central America, of which 45% will be invested in remodeling our existing stores, implementing new capabilities to offer the best shopping experience to our customers, and reach our goal of becoming a generative company by 2040. 29% will be invested into new stores, we can get to new customers. There's still many white space available. Bodega will continue to be our main expansion vehicle.
[crosstalk] We expect new stores will contribute between 1.2% and 1.4% of total sales growth consolidated in 2023. 14% as well of our CapEx will go to technology. I think we already know, technology is about unlocking capabilities. It's about power in the present and enabling the future. We will do it, and always what we're gonna do is leveraging Walmart technology to increase our optimization, productivity, and data management, which will drive our complete ecosystem. Lastly, 12% will go to supply chain. Not the cities, we couldn't have the opportunity to talk about this topic to Ricardo. It's becoming omni-channel. Therefore, we can provide service to our stores and customers, and thus offer a truly omni-channel experience and totally seamless. Now, probably you're making the question that was coming.
[crosstalk] Despite the investments in CapEx, what's gonna happen with our dividends? What we want to do is that even by the CapEx investments and given our solid generation of cash, we expect the dividends can remain inside the historic levels we've been doing. Just to be very clear, we will continue enhancing our enablers and reinforcing our competitive advantages that I have talked about, and mostly the capabilities to build the Walmex of the future. The truth is that if we want to invest, we have to save. To invest in our strategy, we have to continue saving and searching for efficiencies. Again, how are we going to increase.
[crosstalk] Our productivity to invest in our strategy. We already talked a couple of times with some examples. You saw a couple of examples at stores, but let me give you some two or three examples. One of the initiatives we implemented to drive savings was our Smart Spending Program. Far, we have saved more than MXN 2.5 billion since the program started, and it will continue to bring savings in the future. One of the initiatives we are implementing are the Self-Checkout Stations. As Ignacio mentioned, we have 1,450 Self-Checkout Stations that manage 40% of the transactions at those stores. Another one of the initiatives implemented at stores is a program called We Are People in Evolution. Through the project, we change how we manage human resources in the stores.
[crosstalk] Before, we chose to have up to two associates per store that manage all personal processes. Now, with the integration of technology, changes in certain processes and self-management, one associate can oversee up to five stores and can provide a better service at the same time. Productivity, efficiency, service. With the challenging environment we are facing, as you all know, it is important that we continue to develop and implement productivity and saving initiatives. Low costs every day, you know, that's part of our DNA. What are the results that prove our strategy is moving our company in the right direction? First of all, our strategy is a long-term strategy. We want to make sure we deliver results in the short term.
[crosstalk] More importantly, we want our company to create value in the long term to give our shareholders the confidence that our business will be sustainable in the future. In order to achieve our goal of doubling our business in 10 years, as Gui mentioned, in the past, we have been investing in high-return projects. With that, we have obtained the ROIC, a high class or best-in-class ROIC that has expanded 550 basis points in eight years. We have also been able to consistently generate enough cash to self-fund investments. The truth is that in Walmex, our financial strength allows us to do both. On the one hand, to invest, to build the company of the future, and to deliver a strong return to our shareholders. I would like to talk about our ambition.
[crosstalk] Our ambition is to continue to accelerate growth and create value for the future. Our focus will remain in enhancing our core business and provide relevant and full comprehensive solutions to our customers. We expect to double our business in less than 10 years, accelerating versus our previous commitment. We want to do it faster. At the same time, we expect to increase our ROIC from our already best-in-class levels after the investments that we are going through. There is another question. How are we going to do this? Well, it depends on the timing of the investments. We are committed to continue investing and creating value for all our stakeholders. Let me explain how our ecosystem will accelerate growth and value creation. The truth is that you saw this in the stores today.
[crosstalk] We are creating a unique system where every vertical complements our customer value proposition for the customer and enables the possibilities to expand our share of wallet, and with that, to accelerate growth. Today, this morning, you had the opportunity to visit our stores. You saw how our stores are a point of access to our ecosystem. The stores are our main point of access to our ecosystem. Our customers are able to find solutions and benefits to many of their main pain points. You've seen Andrea having access to the lowest prices, including a wide range of own brands. You've seen Andrea in Bodega having access to the digital economy. Shopping, paid connectivity and paying with Cashi. You've seen Maria benefiting from our easy and fast omni-channel experience with the self-checkout and On Demand E xpress Delivery Stations.
[crosstalk] You've seen Lucy creating a connection with advertisers' campaigns, helping their shopping experience, and enabling funds we can reinvest elsewhere. You saw the displays. What I want you to understand today is the reason we have Kiosks for our omni-channel business, the reason we have BAIT and provide connectivity, the reason we have Cashi and provide digital wallets, the reason we have Walmart Health, all that is because the whole is bigger than the sum of the parts. We also believe by connecting our verticals, we are creating a halo effect that multiplies value creation. What I want you to understand is in the past, every time you invested in Walmex, you were investing in a top e-commerce player in Mexico with ambition. Again, anytime you invest in Walmex, you are investing in one of the top players.
[crosstalk] Every time you are investing in Walmex, you are investing in one of the largest telecom players in Mexico. Anytime and every time you invest in Walmex, you are investing in an innovative company with an unlimited potential to grow and to create value. What I want you to understand is that Walmex will continue to generate value to our stakeholders and above all will continue to create value for the Mexican and Central America families. In order to finish, I would like to leave you with three main takeaways. One, our ecosystem will generate mutually reinforcing benefits for our customers. Number two. We are not just creating new businesses, new verticals, but we are creating an ecosystem where the whole is bigger and more valuable than the sum of the parts.
[crosstalk] The third takeaway is a message, and that is that we will continue to accelerate growth and deliver best in class returns as you always ask us. We will maintain our financial discipline, operational discipline and value creation. Thank you very much for your interest.
Thank you for taking my questions. Just two quick ones here, on BAIT. My question is, if when you launched this project, were expecting the success that you have had on this project, and now that the bar has been raised, what should we expect for BAIT in the future? I mean, just looking here, a Tracfone was sold at $300 per subscriber, suggests a valuation of nearly $1 billion for you guys at BAIT. Just curious to your thoughts about that. The other one would be on CapEx. Was talking here with my colleague, below our number here, MXN 27 billion. Curious here, what was the driver like? Smart investing or cautious about 2023? If you can comment about that, will be helpful for me.
Sorry, I didn't get the question.
Yeah, on the CapEx.
Yeah, the CapEx.
Yeah. I mean, what drove the. I mean, 4% versus 3% looks like it was a bit lower than what the market consensus were expecting for 2023.
For us?
Okay.
Got it. Let me start.
Sure.
The first.
I think there were three persons who believed in BAIT. This lady, Alberto and myself. We are a team. We are a team. We engage a lot. We debate a lot. I'm going to tell you a story. One person said, "Okay, go ahead with the project." Let's continue with this conversation in two days and we must BAIT started. Well, I don't think that, I mean, it's a natural thing for us to expect success from BAIT because the cost was a third of what was available in the market. At that moment, there was uncertainty and the uncertainty, for example, is what about the provider? Provider dependent or the vendor of the service that's backing up a BAIT needed us, right, in order to survive.
The truth is that, as you said, the bar is high month after month as we see customers responding. Today, we not only have organic channels of acquisition, but inorganic. We have a network of distributors that sell BAIT in the clubs, outside of the clubs. The answer, well, is always exceeding our expectations with BAIT. The bar is very high. We have to protect the business. We're very disciplined when it comes to variables, ARPU churn, frequency of top-ups. These are measures we look at every day because we want to have a sustainable long-term business. We need customers that will bring us more to the ecosystem. More on the potential of BAIT last year, remember that I don't think we have enough microphones, anyway.
Other than the store as a point for recruiting customers, we have the vendors as something that others don't have. Vendors help us grow our verticals. When we started this, vendors could come to me and they would tell me, "Look, I invested in BAIT and in Cashi." They would tell me that as a token of loyalty. I would tell them, "No, I don't want you to do that." I would tell them, "What's the connection between Nestlé and remittances? Nothing. There is no connecting point." We know that persons who cash remittances in a given point will spend 10% of remittances shopping. That's exactly what's happening with us.
Food vendors are interested in us growing the remittances business because they have in mind this idea that they will be able to sell more food, and if we can then connect with Cashi, they will have more data. Betty started with Dolores, with workshops explaining to vendors the verticals and the results are given in the investments. Let me give you some information. Betty, please correct me if I'm mistaken. Nestlé did a promotion with BAIT last year. Instead of giving away something to customer when shopping Nestlé, I think it was 90 MXN. If they bought 90 MXN of Nestlé products, they could get a week free of internet service, SIM cards. On the other hand, we launched a promotion and we had a very successful campaign.
We would be asking customers to give their information in exchange of a free gift. Nestlé did the same. They started promoting free BAIT service with a big price of MXN 10,000. Well, my point is we have the store and the vendors, and they help us grow the verticals at the lowest possible cost. This is brutal. Let's talk about CapEx. Yes. First of all, let me split the answer. Since 2022, we have been investing in the CapEx and we've redesigned some, in some projects, the center area in Bajío, Tlaxcala. The redesign of those projects for 2022 goes beyond 2023. There are large investment projects involving automation. We've talked about that and currently in the current environment, they have better payoff. That's one explanation.
Another explanation, in 2023, we prioritize investments, this makes us a bit more disciplined when it comes to CapEx. This is what Gui and I wanted to transmit, is that we want to create value. If there are investments in which we believe will have acceleration of growth and value, no doubt we'll do the investments. It's a difference between desire and capacity. I would love to spend more, but I better not, because it depends on our ability to grow the business. Dolores tells me something, she's so right. In everything that we touch, there's a big opportunity because the number of stores and customers that we have. The most difficult thing for us is to pick what we are not going to do.
We have to pick what we are not going to do. Putting too much CapEx in businesses we'll not be able to manage is too much. I don't like it because I'm sure we can do more. For example, Machi got on board, and now we can do more. I don't want to waste your money. CapEx investment is definitely going to work in the upcoming years.
Both.
Both.
Can I?
Sí.
I think Okay. Maybe it's better. Okay. Hi, guys. Thank you so much for the presentation. Marcella Recchia from Credit Suisse. I have two questions on my side. The first is about e-commerce. I'm pretty much new analyst on the name, but, based on last year investor day, you had a target of double-digit penetration in the e-commerce, and we haven't seen anything related on that. The first question is still in place this target of double-digit penetration for next year? The second question is about profitability also in line with e-commerce. You open your guidance for the year. The question is, how should we think about profitability in 2023? Thank you.
Let me just start. I'm gonna pass the baton to Nacho and to Paulo. To make it clear, our main target in e-commerce is to become co-leader. The double -digit was a path to become co-leader. The main thing is that we know that in most of the countries, the two main leaders are the ones that win. That's our main target, okay? Even if we achieve when we achieve, I'm not saying we are not going to, it's not gonna be enough. Okay? Just to make your answer more difficult.
An important comment is that the aspiration is there. Maybe that's not going to happen in 2024, maybe in 2025. What we've seen is a change with the pandemic. There was a big change in behaviors, a big shift to digital, and then another big change, bigger than expected to the stores. What I like, and the most important thing, is that we maintain online customers, and when they change, they go to our stores. We did a study. Those customers who would purchase online and stop doing so, 98% are shopping in one of our formats. That's one of the advantages that other players do not have. All in all, being omni-channel makes us maintain customers. I have to say that the aspiration is there. The aspiration is there. It's the same. We want to be co-leaders in the short run.
In e-commerce, we'll invest on that. Our aspiration is to be aggressive in investments. We are, yes, we are going to reach the double- digit. I cannot say that that's going to happen in two, three or four years because with the increase in prices of food and such, I'm not sure. On the other hand, we are reporting this as net sales, but we're expecting growth with GMC and Marketplace, but GMV, I mean, that's different. I think that we are going to start reporting it differently for the rhythm be different. Our competitors do not report like this. I don't want to provide you with information I don't have the right to. Your question, you connected e-commerce with profitability. Let me tell you two or three things.
First, the e-commerce business, maybe that's always a question. We've always said our On Demand business is a profitable business. If you look at the On Demand and extended assortment businesses, they are all in different stages of evolution. They, that's a business of e-scale, where you have. When you have scale, return starts coming. If you connect a specific question of profitability for 2023, well, you know it already. We never give a specific answer to that question. What you can expect is, one, we'll continue investing in the strategy. Two, we want to maintain the returns or the levels we have today. You ask for 2023. Things will not be linear. There's volatility expected, so but that's what you can expect from us.
We'll continue investing to grow, and we'll maintain the returns we have. What we have to do is to invest more and to give a return to the shareholders. Another thing, advertising business, its growth. You know the profitability we get from that business. A bit over $6 million. We can expect more growth coming from the advertising business. That's the ecosystem we're measuring, that we're constructing. One thing depends on the other. I think that looking at the ecosystem as a whole will be more and more important. I can decide I want to make more money or less money in credit or on e-commerce, depending on what's more convenient.
I look at the profitability of each segment of the ecosystem, but every time is more and more, it's more difficult to understand each one. We have to understand the whole and see how we can move forward.
Okay. Joseph thanks for taking my question.
It's good.
Congrats on the event. It's working, no?
Yeah.
It's working. Okay. Okay.
Si, si.
A couple questions here. The first one goes into the financial services, right? The company put a lot of emphasis on this, like, kind of open loop environment. I mean, like, in the end of the day, the idea is to have a kind of closed loop inside of Walmart. My question to you is on this credit marketplace. The APIs or the development of your, of your data lake. What's the stage there? That, like, your credit partners take, let's say, at nearly face value the information you provide, so that you can have, like, the most affordable credit to your customers, so increase the approval rate. Then I have, like, two other questions. Like, we talked a lot about efficiencies in the store, automation and et cetera.
My question goes into working capital, right? If there are any opportunities on all this, like, ecosystem, to unlock some extra days. Last but not least, you just mentioned on the marketplace, as a major growth avenue. My question to you is on the fulfillment kind of strategy, how to lock in the seller. You mentioned ads, but you have several other service, including credit on a side platform that could be extended to them. Those are my questions. Thank you.
They are so difficult that they're going to answer all of them. Before Paulo does, let me give you my... In Spanish? I'm getting confused with both languages, I don't speak them correctly. For example, working capital, I mean, the image that we have for working capital, because we have a wide opportunity for that to do more, more credit through factories. We do it with very good results. Paulo says that his working capital were growing. I mean, I was also in the financial area, so I have to be careful not losing opportunities that are good for business to have a good image of work capital so you can have it in your evaluations. We have to be careful. There are correct things that we can do in that.
We're not American, don't worry. I have to carry all these measures. It's every time more complex to look on this side. That's what I wanted to say. I'm Brazilian. We're not from America.
Regarding the platform technology, APIs, data lecture, we are building what possibly we will be authorized to acquire. We are not purchasing technology. We already have something that's working currently. We're gonna start building things for the future. Regarding what you were saying about credits, it's something that is working right now. We have a marketplace for credit. We have it with a third party. The idea would be to keep developing that in our own sector and to make it grow within this data model for the customers that we have in Walmart. All of that are next steps starting from this acquisition that we're expecting to do in the following weeks. I don't know if that answered your question completely. The other question was about fulfillment, right? The marketplace.
What we are doing is, and something very important, is when you build a marketplace, is try to control the experience of the final customer in the best way possible. That involves shipping merchandise, advertisement, everything covering the product in the marketplace. We're not leaving that experience in the hands of hundreds of thousands of vendors that have different levels. What we are doing is leveraging our infrastructure in the 22 distribution centers or in our back rooms, is to create a Walmart Center Fulfillment service, so we can do the picking and the delivery of those products with our own standards for compliance, velocity and delivery.
All the services, everything that we are building as an ecosystem, as Walmart Connect, Cashi or the credits, everything that we are building, as we are feeling more confident in what we have, we start extending those benefits to the vendors. For example, we have vendors for cell phones that they put the cell phone and we put the BAIT chip and we sell them in package. We have vendors purchasing advertising through Walmart Connect, so they can improve their positioning or their advertising in sites. That's how we are keep doing things.
Some of those were in early stages, some of them we have more progress. The idea is to build that the ecosystem can fit not only customers but our partners. I just remember some of those, of the benefits that we not always see in the ecosystems because now we are a television. We can buy something better from what we see in stores. In the past, we used to buy as a retailer that sells phones, now we buy as a telecom selling cell phones. The price is different. We have benefits in multiple things. The result from BUYD, as we saw it doesn't have this advantage that we only start having because we're a telecom. It's every time more difficult to sell every vertical by itself. Obviously, we have worked with efficiency in what he is saying.
We're always looking for ways to optimize. We're focused a lot on days on hand, like having the correct assortment or the correct allocation. Like last year, we mentioned this a little bit. The large part is that, I mean, the accounts or to pay the vendors where this was going, the importance in a large companies we are. What we want is not always only just to look for more efficiency in terms. When they are smaller and with the value proposal that's generated, we want to give access to this earlier. That's when we need to give that factor to access to them, so they can have that kind of soon payment to have access to their money earlier. In change of interest rate, it's like an income for us.
It's important because vendors are part of your ecosystem, and that's where we do not want to leverage more and use our strengths, so to speak.
Good afternoon. Can you talk a little bit about the key KPIs for the C-suite managers this year in terms of variable comp and how those are weighted? How are you thinking about inflation this year as well, both in terms of revenue as well as your cost structure?
Maybe I can say more.
You know, inflation. The only thing I know is that I don't know. No.
We are working on that. We are working. Thank God we have passed through years of crisis in inflation from Argentina, Brazil. He doesn't know what inflation is. Mexican, Argentine, Mexican. There are other Argentine, Chilean. Chilean thought they don't know about inflation. Now they're learning. We have trained everyone in the world how to manage inflation, and now we are training them on how to talk about the reduction in inflation. I think I'm not sure how to say, when we made the plan for this year, we wanted the inflation was reduced a little bit faster than this year. Normally, our people are living through 30 years inflation. If you make a growth plan of 5%, 6%, 7%...
They made an inflation plan, 5%, 6%, 7% something, and people put it linear in your plan because that's how they grew. If it's going to be decreased, you have to start in the first quarter with a, with a wide growth because you're gonna have a smaller one over here. The other one is, as the cost of doing business, it's growing. You have to go through a line where your growth will decrease mathematically by inflation, and your costs will increase because the cost of recovering the inflation to your partners. We are not planned for that curve. As much as you plan, I mean, you will not be perfect quarter by quarter. What it's going right now is that inflation, it's a little bit loose.
Next quarter is gonna be a little bit more complicated because this year, we have this curve that we're having it, but now with a high inflation in the first Q versus the first Q last year. We don't know what's gonna happen the next one. I mean, what can be with the cost increasing and the inflation much lower. We are always looking for different for some quarters ahead and taking actions to guarantee that we are having our delivery. It's very difficult to foresee quarter by quarter. That's why we need to have what we call dynamics, the a dynamic forecasting, which is very important. We work with that and something else is to have the information that we have to be able to sit down with our vendors and discuss. I mean, unfortunately for them, for our...
I was a vendor once, Pablo was a vendor once, and some other people here were vendors. We can sit down with them and say exactly what they're doing when the US dollar goes down. When it goes up, they come here and change prices. When they go down, they just keep quiet. What happens with the money that they still have? They spend on promotions that will contribute in no pricing. We have the information, we have people for the commercial area trained to struggle with this and to bring better benefits to our customers. Inflation is still very high. I would like to mention something that's important to protect volumes, to look at the units, because sometimes you look at growth of the top line, but you have to be careful with the units.
We know that we are serving a customer, that's very important to monitor that. In terms of America, in volume and units. Sometimes we have low value, in units, we are earning more. Inflation goes down, and we're just there with more volume. It's difficult to manage this environment now with the model doing what it has to do, what the model has to do. I'm sure that we have 300 years of experience in these issues, and we're on our way. Where's Eduardo? Maybe he will be jealous, so come over here. Basically, if you look at for the e-performance in short term by the executives of this company, it's divided between mostly profit and sales.
There are some scopes with the benefits in long-term incentives, as we call them, and that's one part is the objectives in the short term with sales and profitability. It has a strategic objective as well. Some of the verticals in their business or the e-com business, it's basically how it's divided. You have the short-term part and the long-term part is divided between the things you have to achieve with sales and profit and strategic objectives. Just that.
No. NPS is not there.
NPS is not there, no. It will be. I mean, we have around 40, 60 in short term. That is the fixed payment plus variable and the compensation by strokes. The measurement that Paulo was saying is we're considering a premium, in particular in a compensation to three years, where the core is probably next year in... In the short term for the year, shares long term. There's also a possibility to have a change for more or less given your own individual performance, like NPS, et cetera. They can intervene. They can generate more or less. 2 question from Barclays. The first one is, you have talked about Cashi for a couple of years.
What has changed inside the strategy that has improved with active customers and also outside what they mentioned, that they're receiving this license? Excluding this, what inside Cashi is what has changed regarding previous years where you have talked about it? That's the first question. The second one is about if you can give information on % about how much there is in e-commerce or how much is allocated in distribution centers or store pickup, things like that. Thank you. For Cashi, I can tell you, and Maxi will complement. The best news in Cashi is Maxi and Maxi's team, because there are some things that we cover in each of the verticals when you have expert people that knows what they're doing, they're not that good.
Now we have the talent, and hopefully, in a couple of weeks, we will have the license and the complement for that response. I mean, the responsibility I'm giving to you, right? At product level, I think we have a product that is more stable, more thinking about the user experience. With more functionalities, but always limited of having a closed ecosystem. The fact of having a license in a couple of weeks, hopefully will help us to change the game totally, providing the customer more control of their money, knowing how much they have, transfer it, move it, withdraw, pay, whatever they need. I think the biggest benefit that the ecosystem has in Cashi leverage, leveraged by all the financial services and the rest of the Walmart ecosystem is the savings for the customer.
Now with Cashi, you can pay in Walmart, where now you can save, and in Cashi, you can have more benefits. You can even have more promotions with our vendors to have access to best prices when you pay. Second, we have the possibility to start entering remittances directly to Cashi. Those remittances get to Walmart, and they have to collect it, and with that, you can do some shopping. If you do it outside Walmart, like José, you have not the possibility to use it. Here with the remittances inside Cashi, so that you start creating all that synergy. You shop with that remittances, you save. You pay your electricity bill, you save money. You make some data recharge, you're also saving.
I think the widest benefits leveraged in the rest of the ecosystem and the possibilities to add more things to the platform to give more flexibility to the use of that money for the customer. The questions, I always forget the second question. About e-commerce data, how much percentage is store pickup or how much is distribution center, etc.? We don't make disclosure of that level of detail, I mean, we have 1,000 stores doing shipping and pickup. Of those 1,000 stores, there's 95% of the orders delivered in 24 hours or less. Approximately from that 95%, 80% are delivered on the same day. Extended assortments, mostly it's in performance center and market center from different places. Walmart fulfillment, 30% were remissioned. The rest are vendors selling directly.
Pickup, I mean, we cannot give a number, but it's the smallest number, and it depends on the format.
Yeah. I had a couple of follow-up questions on the CapEx plan. When we think beyond 2023, sort of where are we in the CapEx cycle? Is it sort of coming down and obviously without giving specific numbers, but do you see it sort of staying high in 2024? Are we in a multiple year CapEx cycle, or is really the bulk in 2023, and then after that it should pay down much more quickly? And then I'm quite intrigued by that ecosystem, sort of the interlocking benefits or the mutually sort of reinforcing benefits, as you said. I'm curious, how did you incentivize your teams to work, not as silos, but like to be more in... Because I've imagined there's different teams. There's a team at Cashi, there's a team at BAIT.
How did you incentivize them to basically create incentives that then benefit ultimately the other, was there specific change in incentive structure or how the teams were working?
Irma, I'm going to stop you. Two questions.
Yes.
That the people then have.
Okay.
Actually, going forward, should be only one question.
You do the ones all.
Yeah. The CapEx. Quickly.
Yes.
Very quickly, the CapEx. Yes. Actually what you can expect actually in the next years, slightly or somewhat above, this 3%. What will be happen differently in the next years versus actually this year is actually that we'll probably see a bigger weight of logistics in our actually CapEx investment for what I was actually saying, relating particular the big optimization projects. From there on after, you'll probably see stabilization around the levels that we've seen before.
Let me explain about the ecosystem. The first thing about the ecosystem that will work if we can spread it to the rest of the organization, the idea that our work, our job is really to improve customers' lives. When people understand that our customers' lives are better, they understand the thing that we are this company giving a product, and now we're a company that offers solutions. Not only people to the store will understand that they will sell more when people receive a solution, but the people from the commercial area, I want that the vendor of electronics know that it's very important to provide credits to work on this. I told you about the story about what we're doing, workshops with the people so they can understand. All the transformation that we made was made based on three objectives.
We have three tasks. Firstly, they had to understand transformation, they had to like this transformation, they had to know how to do this transformation. That's where all of us that are here, all the people from the purchasing area, from operations, they have to understand the transformation. I think they do understand it. They have to like it. The ones who don't like it are no longer here. Now we're in the part of the phase where we need more people so they can make the transformation. The first one was me. The fact about thinking about this solution, not necessarily or automatically it means that I'm prepared. I have to take less control. If not, this wouldn't work. We're preparing ourselves more and more, but I'm sure that today our people helps.
They can think that they're just words. Actually in our company, I mean, you can take any conclusions that you like. We believe that if we make the management of the ecosystem well, we will be able to collaborate a little bit more to improve lives of our customers. As 99% of the population that are here are Mexican, it's to share our idea. Our people are passionate for that idea that our company can really help Mexicans' lives if we create those solutions. That's the thing, and I think people at stores have understood that they're part of the strategy. When we started this, it was just Betty and me asking, "Please," for the people to sell BAIT or to sell to other stores. It was like a headache for them.
Now they understand that the BAIT consumer buys more at stores, and it's circular. I will explain once again. I think it's good. I mean, we were the people that were on my table during the lunch because I already mentioned this. The story I talked about Andrea. Think about Andrea receiving remittances from United States to Mexico, receiving more pesos for her dollars. This same Andrea, because we know it, she receives credit, then she goes to the store, and she has access to the products in the store and access to the online products. We deliver at home with internet, cheaper internet. We can sell streaming. We do all this. This is a value chain. Where were we six years ago? In the part about the smaller objective, it was selling a TV.
Who has more intimacy with the customer? It's us. My customer takes the credit to buy the TV with me. The credit guy was earning more money than us and was selling too expensive that credit. The person that was selling internet to use it on my phone was earning more money than us and was selling very expensive to my customer. We take back the control of the value chain, and we have the power to help our customers on each of these things, and decide where is time to make profit, when it's time to reduce the price for my customer. At the moment that we explained this at the level of the store, and now they understand this value chain, and they understand the importance that they have because the store is the point of sale of all the ecosystem. That's very clear for them.
Now it's to execute it. Now they understand it now, they want to be part of this, and we need to train them very fast. I mean, they're well-trained, but we're still missing a couple things for them to do it well. Now, imagine the power that we will have to improve their lives and to earn money and earn sales. Here we're not only for improving lives, it's gonna be both. It's very powerful from my point of view, this thing that we're creating. Only one question? I think we haven't asked about the customer-centric business because it came out a couple of times, and it's very relevant in the dynamics for labor that we know they are very good. What are you feeling in Mexico? We want to know if these are structural changes or not.
Definitely, we are focused on redoing our business model, so we are reinventing. One of the productivity projects for this and the upcoming two years is transforming the business in the traditional retail, transitioning to omni-channel. We're launching something called multifunctionals. This multifunctionals project includes technology, of course, training. Gui was talking about it. Skills, upgrading the skills of the staff in the stores. Today, we have 408 stores already converted into this concept. This will bring us savings of 2% or 3%. Yes, I totally agree, this has to be constant, and this is just one of the many projects we have. More on labor. Labor costs. We have four current factors affecting or impacting the labor cost. Inflation, it impacts us and our competitors. The cost of doing business in Mexico rose.
Who has just said that wages should not go up? They should. It's fair, but it's a cost. Who has just said that number of holidays from six to 12 days is wrong? I do not. I support that. It doesn't matter if we say that we want to improve the lives of our staff and go against those policies. It's useless saying that maternity leave should include more days and then go against that. There's a cost of inflation, the structural cost, the problem is that all these things have arrived at the same time, but it's difficult for all competitors. The cost of investments we are making. The model we have is a platform connecting customers who need what we are offering and vendors.
Customers need everything, and vendors of services that are part of the ecosystem put the CapEx and the OpEx, but they have 2 big problems. 1 problem is that the cost of acquisition of customers is high. The 2nd problem is that in order to sell at low prices, well, they need to sell millions of units. The investment is important, but it's an investment without CapEx and just a bit of OpEx. Inflation, the cost of doing businesses, investments, and what Eduardo says, improving the value proposition for our associates. We're improving the conditions there, but the turnover went from 70 to 30. Please help me out in doing the calculations, and it costs a lot. I'm talking about uniforms, training, customer service training. Yes, there are a bunch of costs.
Some quarters, I have to come to you and explain why the margin went down 30 basis points, but let's see the growth rate that we get in exchange of that cost. Please take a look at what Paulo says. At the end of the curve, the ROIC will be higher. Yes, it's difficult. Yes, it's hard work, I consider that we have more capacity to deal with the increasing cost better than our competitors. There is no shortcut. No, we need more productivity, of course. Otherwise, that means I would need to open the door for hard discounts, and that's not an option. My question is, what's the range of % when it comes growth in terms of square meters? I'm referring to the 29% in omni-channel for the new stores. Gaston, would you like to say something here? Gaston is here.
He prepared himself a lot to be part of the panel, he has not had the opportunity to talk to you. He's going to take 30 minutes to address everything he prepared. Well, now you distract me. I don't know what the question was. New stores will represent between 1.2%-1.4% of sales. That means that the fresher of growth in meters is happening in the sales floor. Last year, we ended up with about 150,000 square meters plus 100,000 or 150,000 square meters in logistics areas. That's brutal. Every year, we have so many more meters. Last year, we had a record number in meters, absolute record since 2014.
There's a disparity between the meters and the contribution of those meters. New stores sell more. All old stores are selling more. The yields are great. We have discipline in the growth and well-maintained growth. The last question. If we answer all questions, Pilar Lavin will not have a job to do here. Pilar Lavin at Lamrock. Thank you very much for your presentations and your valuable time. I have a question. What else can Walmex do to face the external challenges for being in Mexico and to address the challenges posed by the government of Mexico? I refer to energy, to power, to education of the population that may help us attract more educated talent. What about health-related services? I see a great opportunity there. I'll leave Gaston to talk about energy-related affairs.
The verticals we are created come from surveys that we run with customers to detect their needs. Guess what the answer is? Health, education, credit, banking services, transportation. These are things that should come from the country government. If investments, government investments were there, I mean, we cannot fix everything, but we can contribute. The way we can assist is through digital, not in the physical world, because in the physical world, there's not enough money. There's not enough money to assist. Not in the physical world. In the digital, banking service, for example, yes. Digital health services are a solution. This is why the internet services are the door, the door of entry to health services and other services needed by customers. Everything will happen in the speed we can afford.
Yes, we can contribute in each of the services you mentioned. When it comes to energy, 62% of energy consumption of Walmex comes from renewables. It's a high figure versus the world benchmark. The second aspect, all stores since two years ago are born with solar panels. Renovations include solar panels and new technologies in the stores. Today, an average store, a new store consumes 27% less per square meters than 10 years ago. We have new technologies in the stores, and we're helping there. It's not just generation, but consumption. Something else, education. In your last visit to the stores, people were moving around with a printout. Now they carry a tablet. Staff now are trained to just technology.
If they leave this company, they leave the company with a training, with an education on technology. A fundamental role of ours is to educate, to train. Now let me give you one example. Adrian asked me something. He asked me the date you will leave, and I don't know if he wants me to leave, but he asked, "What's your main contribution so far, Gui?" I say, "Well, accident reduction." A few years ago, we decided to set a Zero Accident Culture. In the city, like in any other city, there are accidents. We have reduced by 65% the number of accidents of associates or customers, and we're not happy yet in the number of accidents.
We grew 700 stores, the other day, I was happy to learn from an associate, once he said, "Thank you, because what you mentioned about using the safety belt and not driving and texting saved me and my family." This is contributing as well, because we have an impact on a lot of persons when we educate them, when we teach them how to use technology. We are well aware of our reach and we'll continue educating. There are so many things that we are doing on that, we need to do more. It's not enough. A quick example, our associates use this badge, there's a picture of their family, it says, "I work safely.
My family is waiting for me." There is a statement here, and it describes hazardous situations. In the past, people were told, "Your first priority is to sell." Now they understand that their main priority is to stay safe for themselves, for the family, and for the company. It's no miracle why people are not leaving, because everything is so important, and this is helping the country as well. Hard data, 5 million man-hour are invested in training. With this, you know, the education level in Mexico and Central America is low, even in associates. We give them an option to study high school and preparatory school. 924 persons have graduated from school, and we want to double that number.
One data that reflects in our engagement results, and that's something Ignacio shared, we did a survey to 230,000 staff, and we asked them, "How committed do you feel to the company?" 86% of them said that they felt committed. It's long hours, but the promise we offer to the staff is real, and it's congruent. There's a special ceremony in which we recognized some staff, 135 staff, who have been working in the company 35 years and 40 years, working here 30 years. The committee was there. We danced a bit. Pablo danced a lot. Don't worry, he's not going to dance here. Pilar says that I have to go home. No, thank you very much for being here.
Any follow-up question, please don't hesitate to reach out. I hope you have enjoyed the conference. Thank you very much. Pilar, thank you very much. Marilu, thank you very much for everything that you prepared. Please, a round of applause for her. Thanks to everyone, to the staff helping backstage. Thank you very much.