Walmart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, is setting up lockers in about a dozen stores so that shoppers who shop on its website can pick up their items without having to wait in checkout lines.
The test, which is being conducted in an undisclosed market, is part of Walmart’s strategy to offer more convenience for web-savvy shoppers to make their purchases wherever they want.
Walmart officials disclosed the test Tuesday at a media event at its company’s global e-commerce offices in San Bruno, Calif., located in Silicon Valley. The test accounts for just a tiny fraction of its 4,000 U.S. namesake stores. The service is an evolution of another shopping option called “site to store” launched in 2007 where shoppers can order online and then pick up the items at a special counter within two weeks.
The company has also been testing an option where shoppers can pick up their purchases they bought online at select FedEx locations.
Walmart used the one-day event to showcase how the discounter is meeting the challenges to fight off online rivals like eBay and Amazon.com, which have been luring shoppers to the web with their vast offerings of products and low prices. But the discounter is also following its own customers. More than half of its shoppers have smartphones and one third of its online traffic now comes from smartphones. For the holiday shopping season, that percentage figure was up to 40%.
Over the past year, Walmart has been launching a number of initiatives that merge its online business with its bricks and mortar stores. That’s all with the purpose of meeting the company’s overall mission of “saving people money so they can live better.” That includes same-day delivery in five markets, and an app that allows shoppers to scan their purchases with an Apple device while in the aisle and then pay at a self-checkout terminal. In 10 months, it also rebuilt its search engine from scratch, and the improved search tool has resulted in an increase of the number of browsers to buyers on walmart.com by 20%.
Digital is also a priority for the retailer in Canada. A year ago, Walmart Canada hired Twist Image to help the retailer make “significant strides” in the digital space.
“We know our customers are looking for convenience and everyday low prices, and if we can open up another channel to deliver that, that’s what we’re going to do,” Susan Schutta, director of corporate affairs for Walmart Canada told Marketing at the time.
