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Walmart Inc will add small deposits with a team of robots to dozens of its stores to help meet collection and delivery orders, the company said on Wednesday, as Americans shift their spending online amid the COVID-19 pandemic. .
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The robots will work behind the scenes, choosing frozen and chilled foods, as well as smaller general merchandise items from inside the warehouses, or local distribution centers, which will transport “thousands of frequently purchased items”.
The store staff, in turn, will go to the sales area to pick up fresh produce, meats, seafood and larger general merchandise items, such as large-screen TVs, then return to the centers to complete the ordering process, said the company.
The world’s largest retailer, which operates about 5,000 stores across the country, did not say how many stores will have the new centers, but said it was “planning dozens of locations, with many more to come”.
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Contactless services, such as sidewalk pickup and home delivery, have grown as buyers worried about viruses have chosen to stay home and shop online.
The trend drove record digital sales at major retailers, such as Target Corp and Best Buy, and Walmart in Bentonville, Arkansas, was no exception.
In the first quarter, at the start of the pandemic, Walmart’s collection and delivery services increased by 300%, while the number of new customers quadrupled, the company said.
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“We don’t see the use of these services changing in the future – we hope to continue serving more and more customers who have become dependent on collection and delivery,” Tom Ward, senior vice president of customer products at Walmart USA, told reporters on a conference call. .
Walmart began testing similar automated technology in late 2019 at a store in Salem, New Hampshire and found that orders can be fulfilled in “just a few minutes,” said Ward.
| Ticker | Safety | Last | change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WMT | WALMART INC. | 147.52 | +1.30 | + 0.89% |
The new change comes as Walmart chief executive for e-commerce operations in the United States, Marc Lore, is expected to step down at the end of the month.
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Under Lore’s supervision, the large retailer launched same-day delivery and withdrawal services, as well as a rival Amazon Prime membership program dubbed “Walmart Plus” to take on the e-commerce giant at its own game.
(Reporting by Melissa Fares in New York; edited by Richard Pullin)