Walmart Expands Online Grocery Pickup

Wal-Mart is expanding their curbside grocery pickup services to new markets across the U.S.

According to TIME, the world’s largest retailer announced Tuesday that it would be launching the pickup service in eight new locations including Nashville, TN; Fayetteville and Charlotte, NC; Colorado Springs, CO; Tucson, AZ; Ogden, UT; Atlanta, GA; and Salt Lake City, UT.

This announcement comes after the successful completion of pickup testing in five of Wal-Mart’s Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets, reports FORTUNE.

“Each time we’ve added a new city, our customers begin using the service faster than they did in the previous one,” said Michael Bender, COO of Wal-Mart Global eCommerce.

TIME reports that this grocery pickup expansion is Wal-Mart’s attempt to compete with retail competitors Amazon and Target. Earlier this month, Target partnered with Instacart to start a pilot program in Minneapolis delivering groceries for $3.99. Amazon is also starting a delivery service. Testing has already begun in New York, California, Philadelphia, and Seattle. Their annual fee is $299.

Wal-Mart’s COO says right now they’re focusing on expanding grocery pickup instead of delivery because it gives customers the opportunity to choose a specific pickup time. Therefore, there is no need for them to be at home waiting.

While the retailer is focusing on grocery pickup at the moment, they have not given up the development of a delivery program, and in fact have begun testing in two markets.

“We are not walking away from delivery,” said Bender. “But right now the focus for us is pickup, driven largely by what our customers are telling us.”

According to Neil Stern, a senior partner at retail consultancy McMillan-Doolittle, from a cost perspective, investing in pickup makes more sense.

“The economics of pick-up are much better for a retailer. Delivering to the home remains costly, even as services like Instacart and Shipt attempt to reinvent the model,” Stern said.

Wal-Mart will also be adding a new employee role, the “personal shopper.” This person will be responsible for retrieving the ordered items. The new service will allow shoppers to choose from nearly 30,000 products.

According to the Wall Street Journal, through the expanded grocery pickup service, shoppers will be able to order the products online and choose when they would like to pick them up. When the shopper arrives they would call the store and an employee would bring out their items. Same day delivery is available as long as the order is made before 10 a.m. and there is a minimum order amount of $30.

[Photo Courtesy of Joe Raedle/ Getty Images]