The last-mile delivery service is intended to help Walmart go head-to-head with Amazon
NACS Online
The Wall Street Journal reports that Walmart is expected to begin testing a grocery delivery service with ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft, an effort to help the retailer “compete head on with Amazon.com.”
Last-mile delivery, writes the news source “has proved a hotly contested battleground. Dozens of startups like Instacart Inc. and DoorDash Inc., the U.S. Postal Service, Uber and Amazon are all vying for accounts with retailers, restaurants and grocery stores to bring goods to people’s homes.”
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon discussed the pilot project during the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Friday. A Walmart spokesperson told the news source that the grocery delivery service will be available later this month in the Denver and Phoenix markets.
The Journal writes that the service will allow shoppers to place a grocery order online and Walmart employees will select the merchandise and package the order. Walmart will then hail an Uber or Lyft driver to pick up the order and deliver it to the customer’s location. Delivery will cost $7 to $10, and customers will pay Walmart, not the drivers.
“We’ll start small and let our customers guide us, but testing new things like last-mile delivery allow us to better evaluate the various ways we can best serve our customers,” Michael Bender, chief operating officer of Walmart Global eCommerce, told the news source.
