Dive Brief:
- For the holiday season, Walmart is introducing an express pickup option with orders ready curbside at 500 stores in about one hour. Walmart+ members have access to unlimited Express Pickup without a fee, and the service will expand nationwide in the coming weeks, according to a Wednesday announcement.
- Walmart also debuted the “Shop to Light” feature, where customers can use the Walmart app in stores to search for an item and see an LED light on shelves flash to guide them to its location.
- The mass retailer also added American Sign Language interpreting services to its U.S. stores. Shoppers can scan the QR code at service desks to connect with an interpreter, which is available through the interpretation service Sorenson.
Dive Insight:
Express pickup is the latest addition to Walmart’s plethora of fulfillment options, which includes the even-faster 30-minutes-or-less delivery. The company has increasingly focused on using its stores to improve order fulfillment.
“We continue to invest in our stores, and they're interconnected to that supply chain,” President and CEO of Walmart’s U.S. business David Guggina said during the Goldman Sachs Global Consumer and Retail Conference in September. “About 80% of our e-commerce deliveries flow through our stores, either generated directly from the forward deployed inventory or our parcels that are injected into the stores and then injected into our Spark last-mile delivery network or our van delivery network … We have almost 40% of all deliveries now today from our stores delivering fast, meaning delivered in hours or delivered in minutes.”
For the holidays, Guggina said that the consumer wants to save money and time, which is what Walmart is focused on.
The company’s new in-store lighting shelf feature is also being utilized to assist store associates. Store employees can use the “Stock the Light” functionality to identify where an item is meant to be shelved. This is also being used by employees to fulfill an online pickup or local delivery order, per another Walmart announcement last week.
The retailer’s new ASL service is part of Walmart’s accessibility focus for shoppers. The company in 2023 debuted store hours intended for shoppers with sensory disabilities, where stores will turn off the radio, lower the lights where possible and change the TV walls to a static image.
