Walmart has debuted a redesigned mobile app and homepage for walmart.com to inspire customers at a time when discretionary purchases are on the decline, in a bid to inspire more purchases with seasonality and social media appeal.
Tom Ward, executive vice president and chief eCommerce officer of Walmart U.S., wrote in a Monday (April 3) blog post that the retailer is “rolling out a completely redesigned homepage, building a customer-centric and curated storefront on walmart.com and the Walmart app so customers can easily find what they need and be inspired to shop more of the hundreds of millions of items in our online assortment.”
Opting for a “product-focused experience that better mirrors the way our customers love to shop,” Ward said the new imagery and live video have been added and optimized to bring a more dynamic feel to the online customer experience, such as “a new social-inspired scroll so customers can browse our selection just as they’d scroll their favorite social media apps.”
He added that “this new experience doesn’t just benefit our customers. It also provides our suppliers and Marketplace sellers new opportunities to showcase more relevant products and better tell their stories, within moments that are top of mind for our customers, as they grow their businesses on walmart.com. And we’re giving our Walmart creators the resources, tools and products to help develop their community and inspire customers as they shop online.”
In January, Walmart sweetened the pot to draw more marketplace sellers, announcing a limited-time offer to new U.S.-based sellers, including a commission rate reduction of up to 25% for 90 days when they launch on the marketplace and try several tools and services.
The digital redesign unveiled Monday dovetails with Walmart’s stated intention of being a more omnichannel-focused retailer.
Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon said during a fourth-quarter 2022 earnings call in February that the company is “building a seamless omnichannel experience for customers and prioritizing convenience for them is critical. Our stores have become hybrid.”
Doubling down on that, Walmart Vice President of Omni Services and Capabilities, U.S., Julia Unger told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster during a PYMNTS panel discussion that the retailer is doing more to create seamless, personalized shopping experiences that unite digital and in-store capabilities to remove friction as a hedge against a 2023 slowdown in sales.
Unger said the shopping journey “cannot be disjointed; it cannot feel impersonal. It’s really important that one event leads to the next. If I just bought tires, then [the retailer] should know that I need installation for those, and let’s get that scheduler up in front of the customer so they can schedule an auto service appointment. It’s making sure that the content and the experience are connected, and it’s consistent.”
Unger illustrated with an example of QR code capabilities in stores where if a customer doesn’t find the item they want on the shelves, they can scan the item’s QR code and have their choice fulfilled via walmart.com for home delivery or curbside pickup.
In the digital redesign announcement, Ward also touched on that, saying, “we’re improving how our customers can explore the endless aisles of walmart.com with a sleek new look and experience that offers a more engaging way to browse and discover our incredible assortment.”
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