Walmart patterns to expand its online grocery delivery service to a fleet of roughly 800 stocks by the end of the year, as competition continues to ramp up in the digital grocery aisle.
The distension will open up the retailer to 100 metropolitan areas, reaching more than 40 percent of U.S. households. It wishes offer shoppers same-day delivery of fresh produce, meat and seafood, along with non-perishable pieces.
Walmart’s grocery delivery business will be supported by a number of sharers, including Uber, the company said on Wednesday. It has already been toil with Uber as it has piloted its efforts.
The announcement comes just weeks after Amazon augmented two cities to its new Amazon Prime grocery delivery service, bringing the add up to number up to six. Other retailers such as Kroger and Target have been partnering with third-party providers such as Instacart, Deliv and Shipt.
Walmart has been producing its stores for its online grocery business, re-outfitting many of them to advocate the service, CNBC previously reported. Those stores will be the before all to introduce the program, Tom Ward, the vice president of Walmart’s digital affairs in the U.S., said on a call with members of the media.
It expects to make online disposal pickup of groceries available at about 2,200 stores before 2019.
“We purposefulness … reach as many households as we can,” Ward said. “We will leverage our footprint where it give rise ti the most sense.”
To order groceries online from Walmart.com and be dressed them delivered, a shopper will pay a flat delivery fee of $9.95, and a basket obligation contain at least $30 worth of items. Orders can also be placed via a Walmart Grocery app. There is no remittance required, as is the case for Amazon Fresh and a handful of other, more costly opportunities on the market.
For packing the items together in stores, Walmart will use its accumulation of more than 18,000 “personal shoppers.” Ward said more breadwinners are moving into that position on a weekly basis, as more Walmart caches are outfitted to fulfill orders via its website.
“We are gaining new customers who might not should prefer to had access to Walmart previously,” Ward said about what he’s cultured from the pilot test of grocery delivery thus far. The service was being proffered in Dallas, San Jose, Denver, Phoenix, Tampa and Orlando.
For shoppers who are new to the program when it sails out later this year, Walmart is offering $10 off a first kaput of $50 or more, and free delivery if a basket also meets that doorstep.