Walmart's vice president of digital operations said late last month that the company plans to pilot an online grocery service with self-driving cars that pick up customers at their homes and take them to the store to collect their orders. Walmart plans to test the service in Chandler, AZ with Waymo, formerly Google's self-driving car project.
A customer in the pilot program would order his/her groceries at Walmart.com, choose online grocery pickup and select a pickup time. A personal shopper gathers the items, and then a Waymo vehicle picks up the customer, brings him/her to the selected store to get the groceries, and drives the customer back home.
Waymo has also teamed up with shopping center owner DDR, which will offer rides in Waymo self-driving vehicles to Ahwatukee Foothills Towne Center in Chandler.
One week after the announcement, Walmart revealed that it plans to test a program that would have robots bring products to its in-store personal shoppers in an effort to speed up online grocery pickup.
An automated storage and retrieval system, developed by Alert Innovation for Walmart, is being installed at a Walmart supercenter in Salem, NH, where it is adding 20,000 square feet to house the system, warehouse online grocery orders, and serve as a pickup point with drive-thru lanes for customers.
A Walmart spokesperson said that "the vast majority of grocery products we offer in-store will be fulfilled through this system, though our personal shoppers will still hand-pick produce and other fresh items."
The Salem store remodel will also include pickup towers for online orders; an automated shelf-scanner that helps identify out-of-stock items, incorrect labels and missing labels; and Walmart's FAST unloader system to get products to the sales floor more quickly.
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Walmart partners with Google, expands Uber delivery service
Walmart and Google announced last week that a new partnership between the companies will allow shoppers to use Google's apps and devices to shop at Walmart.
According to a story in Supermarket News, Walmart customers will soon be able to link their accounts to Google and receive personalized shopping results based on past purchases using Google Express, Google Assistant or a Google Home device. Walmart will fulfill orders made through Google at no extra charge.
According to the companies, "hundreds of thousands" of items will be available through the service. (Walmart.com has about 67 million SKUs available for sale.)
Walmart ecommerce CEO Marc Lore said the partnership is "just the beginning," adding that voice shopping, which will be possible through Google, will be expanding its capabilities in the near future.
Walmart and Uber team up for home delivery
In a separate announcement, Walmart said last week that it plans to expand its grocery home delivery service through Uber to the Dallas and Orlando markets. Walmart began testing Uber delivery over a year ago in Phoenix.
Customers who choose home delivery through Uber are charged $9.95 per order.
Perhaps the bigger news is that the fleet of Walmart Uber delivery cars have giant models of fruit and vegetables on their roofs.
According to a story in Supermarket News, Walmart customers will soon be able to link their accounts to Google and receive personalized shopping results based on past purchases using Google Express, Google Assistant or a Google Home device. Walmart will fulfill orders made through Google at no extra charge.
According to the companies, "hundreds of thousands" of items will be available through the service. (Walmart.com has about 67 million SKUs available for sale.)
Walmart ecommerce CEO Marc Lore said the partnership is "just the beginning," adding that voice shopping, which will be possible through Google, will be expanding its capabilities in the near future.
Walmart and Uber team up for home delivery
In a separate announcement, Walmart said last week that it plans to expand its grocery home delivery service through Uber to the Dallas and Orlando markets. Walmart began testing Uber delivery over a year ago in Phoenix.
Customers who choose home delivery through Uber are charged $9.95 per order.
Perhaps the bigger news is that the fleet of Walmart Uber delivery cars have giant models of fruit and vegetables on their roofs.
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Online grocery shopping getting better and easier
It's no secret that online grocery shopping is a real thing, and many people are doing it. However, it has its drawbacks, mostly that the customer can only choose from items sold at one specific store, and often the online assortment is smaller than the assortment offered in the store.
Enter Instacart and Google. With services offered by these two companies, customers can now shop online from multiple stores and wait for one delivery that includes all of the items purchased. All of the sudden the traditional supermarket is serving as a distribution warehouse.
An article I read envisions a day when no one visits supermarkets anymore, but I think that's far fetched. Remember when analysts were saying that online sales would prevent people from visiting bricks and mortar retail stores? In a few short years we have learned that online channels and the in-store experience complement each other, and both mediums will most likely be around for quite some time.
So, I think people - including me - will still visit supermarkets. But there's plenty of room in the industry for online sales, and for whatever the Googles and Instacarts of the world think of next.
Enter Instacart and Google. With services offered by these two companies, customers can now shop online from multiple stores and wait for one delivery that includes all of the items purchased. All of the sudden the traditional supermarket is serving as a distribution warehouse.
An article I read envisions a day when no one visits supermarkets anymore, but I think that's far fetched. Remember when analysts were saying that online sales would prevent people from visiting bricks and mortar retail stores? In a few short years we have learned that online channels and the in-store experience complement each other, and both mediums will most likely be around for quite some time.
So, I think people - including me - will still visit supermarkets. But there's plenty of room in the industry for online sales, and for whatever the Googles and Instacarts of the world think of next.
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