In its latest assault on Amazon (AMZN), retail giant Walmart (WMT) is breaching into its rival’s forte – ecommerce – through its new Click & Collect feature. With this feature, customers can place orders online and pick them up at stores without having to incur any delivery costs. The facility, which is available at 1,800 stores, has helped Walmart win more customers and drive sales higher across all its channels.
This feature is expected to help Walmart boost its e-commerce growth in a way that could even surpass Amazon some day. Walmart has implemented various strategies to improve order, pickup and delivery at its stores and make them as convenient as possible for the customer. The company has also invested significantly in technology to improve its service.
These investments include special storage equipment and delivery vehicles involving sophisticated features aimed at improving its grocery delivery service. Grocery is a strong spot for Walmart and the retailer has a good market share in the business along with healthy sales.
Grocery is a strong spot for Walmart and the retailer has a good market share in the business along with healthy sales
Amazon has still not gained solid footing in the grocery business and the company is attempting several innovative tactics to do so with the help of its Whole Foods operations.
Walmart owns a large number of physical stores which is an advantage over Amazon. Walmart has plans to roll out online grocery delivery to nearly half of the US population by the end of this year and the company has partnered with several delivery services for this purpose.
The acquisitions of Jet.com and Flipkart are also major investments in the ecommerce area, so we know where Walmart’s strategy is headed. Remember that Walmart’s e-commerce sales grew 40% during the second quarter.
Walmart’s shares climbed around 10% after the release of its second quarter results. Looking at the past three months, the stock is up around 14%, while the S&P 500 index is up about 5%.