Walmart U.S. Chief eCommerce Officer Tom Ward said shoppers have become more reliant on eCommerce since the start of the pandemic, and he sees his company as ready to embrace that transformation, as brick-and-mortar stores have a new place in our lives these days.
“The store is becoming a shoppable fulfillment center,” Ward told CNBC in an interview published Thursday (June 2), his first since he took the job in February. “And if the store acts like the fulfillment center, we can send those items the shortest distance in the fastest time.”
Among the examples of how Walmart is changing its stores’ identity is the debut of its delivery drone service from the stores’ parking lots, the addition of direct-to-customer (D2C) food delivery and the upcoming debut of third-party sellers’ goods packed and shipped from Walmart’s thousands of U.S. locations.
Amazon has had a stranglehold on the eCommerce market with a 40% market share, according to CNBC, and consumers are now spending more on gas and food because of inflation, so they’re looking for bargains and deals anywhere they can find them, which is why eCommerce remains sustainable today.
About 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of one of Walmart’s 4,700 U.S. locations, and the company remains the country’s largest grocer based on revenue. Now, it’s looking to “expand its assortment of merchandise, improve the customer experience and increase the density of delivery routes to turn eCommerce into a bigger business,” the report stated.
Walmart has had curbside pickup for many years, which is why 25% of Americans’ spending on those types of sales went to Walmart last year, making the retailer the runaway leader in the space even as restrictions related to the coronavirus are waning two-plus years after it started.
Americans want their deliveries faster than ever, and Walmart has 31 fulfillment U.S. fulfillment centers and 3,500 stores playing that role, Ward told CNBC. The company can reach 80% of the U.S. with same-day delivery.
“It might arrive in a handful of hours after they bought it online, as opposed to a couple of days later,” he said. “So, it’s a transformational experience in terms of speed, which is really hard to replicate without that fantastic footprint that we have.”
Last month, Walmart said it’s expanding its unmanned aerial delivery service with partner DroneUp to six states, with plans to complete 1 million drone deliveries by the end of the year.
Read more: Walmart Ups Drone Delivery Comp With Amazon, Expands Program to 6 States
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