American multinational retail corporation, WalMart Stores Inc., said it is cutting jobs in accounting and other back-office positions at about 500 locations in the Western region of the US.

The move will affect two or three people per store, totalling as many as 1500 workers, Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg said.

But those employees are expected to be offered positions that will involve direct contact with shoppers, such as working in the online pickup department or as pharmacy technicians.

The goal is to get workers out of the backrooms and on to the selling floor where they can interact more closely with customers, Lundberg said.

As part of the strategy, the world’s largest retailer and the US’ largest private employer is centralising the invoice department for that region, and it’s also using “cash recycler” machines that will automatically count money.

Walmart tested the program in 50 stores in the Western region and found that just 1 per cent of the affected workers left the company, Lundberg said.

“What we are doing is taking the complexities out of old cumbersome jobs and simplifying things in the store,” Lundberg said. “How can we get the focus less on the backroom jobs?”

It comes as Walmart is trying to improve customer service as a way to boost sales in the face of increased competition from all fronts, including from online leader Amazon.com.

Walmart has been working hard to declutter the stores and pull workers out of stock rooms and on to store floors. It’s also in its second year of a US$2.7 billion (A$3.64 billion) investment in wage increases and training for its hourly employees.

Earlier this year, the company said it was shuttering 154 stores in the US, a rare pruning on its home turf. It was part of an overall move to shutter 269 stores worldwide.

Walmart has about 1.4 million workers at its more than 4,500 namesake stores in the US

The job cuts were first reported on Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal online.

AP

Access exclusive analysis, locked news and reports with Inside Retail Weekly. Subscribe today and get our premium print publication delivered to your door every week.