Walmart To Expand Delivery Unlimited Program

With an expansion of its Grocery Delivery membership option for customers, Walmart plans to grow the reach of Delivery Unlimited to 1,400 stores later this autumn. The offering allows shoppers to pay a monthly or yearly fee to get unlimited Walmart Grocery Delivery orders. Shoppers, however, can still pay a per-delivery fee without a membership, the company said in an announcement.

“We’ve been investing in our online grocery business by quickly expanding our Grocery Pickup and Delivery services. Delivery Unlimited is the next step in that journey,” Tom Ward, senior vice president, digital operations, Walmart U.S., said in the announcement. “By pairing our size and scale and these services we’re making Walmart the easiest place for to shop. Combine that with the value we can provide, our customers can’t lose.”

Walmart started experimenting with Delivery Unlimited in Salt Lake City, Miami, Houston and Tampa earlier in the year. With the positive response of shoppers, Walmart says, the company is growing the offering to all 200 metro areas where Grocery Delivery is currently available. And, as the company keeps growing its Grocery Delivery Services, Delivery Unlimited will expand.

The company said in the announcement that the service will be available in over 1,600 stores and over 50 percent of the country by the close of 2019. And it noted that the membership has a free trial of 15 days.

In separate news, Walmart announced Walmart Voice Order in April, which is a voice ordering function that lets people use voice commands to shop for groceries. In a blog post at the time, Ward said the merchant is building platforms with partners including Google to help customers shop via voice.

Beginning in April, shoppers can say “Hey Google, talk to Walmart” and the Google Assistant will add items directly to their Walmart Grocery cart. The technology examines past purchases to make sure the item a customer is asking for ends up in the shopping cart.