Walmart starts delivery venture
Firm’s unmarked vehicles will drop off for other retailers
Walmart Inc.’s latest business venture will make its home delivery service available to retailers of all sizes, the company said Tuesday.
Walmart Go Local will use Walmart’s enormous logistics capacity to deliver goods for non-Walmart retailers, the company said in a news release.
The service can handle a wide assortment of products and meet varying timelines.
“In an era where customers have come to expect speed and reliability, it’s more important than ever for businesses to work with a service provider that understands a merchant’s needs,” said John Furner, president and chief executive officer of Walmart’s U.S. division.
“Walmart has spent years building and scaling commerce capacities that support our network of more than 4,700 stores and we look forward to helping other businesses have access to the same reliable, quality and low-cost services,” Furner said.
As a “white-label” service, delivery vehicles won’t be marked with Walmart’s logo so the seller’s brand remains “front and center,” according to the Go Local website.
A Walmart spokeswoman said the company’s delivery network “includes the Spark Driver platform and other delivery modes as we scale them, including electric vans, drones and autonomous vehicles.”
Spark Driver, available in more than 600 cities, uses vetted drivers who enroll in the program to make deliveries using their own cars.
Go Local will start making deliveries “over the coming months,” the spokeswoman said.
As for cost, it’s “contingent on the particular needs of the client,” she said.
“We offer competitive pricing due to our operating model and existing delivery efficiencies.”
The Bentonville-based
retailer has already signed contractual agreements with “a number of” national and smaller retail businesses and is seeking more. The spokeswoman said the company had nothing to share regarding how many clients have signed on so far, but will release more information soon.
Brian Yarbrough, a retail analyst for financial services firm Edward Jones, said home delivery is much more expensive than other means of getting goods to customers, such as curbside pickup or shipping orders.
Carol Spieckerman, a retail consultant and president of Spieckerman Retail, said retailers not yet offering delivery may have found it logistically or economically prohibitive to do so.
“The ability to tap into Walmart’s scale and expertise without revealing the source should prove irresistible to many,” she said.
And Walmart will likely offer businesses a “compelling value proposition to encourage early adopters,” Spieckerman said.
But trying to project whether Go Local will directly drive profitability “may miss the point,” she said.
“The service will greatly expand Walmart’s knowledge base and serve as a complement to its recently announced partnership with Adobe,” Spieckerman said.
Walmart has formed several new businesses in recent months as it seeks to move beyond retail.
Doug McMillon, Walmart’s chief executive officer, has told investors over the past year that Walmart wanted to monetize its assets and capabilities to create new revenue streams.
In July, Walmart began working with Adobe to sell some of the e-commerce technology Walmart has developed.
Adobe’s role involves selling Walmart’s cloudbased software by subscription on its Adobe Commerce platform.
And in January, the retailer said it had formed a financial technology, or fintech, firm in partnership with investment company Ribbit Capital.
The new company, which has not yet been given a name, will offer “next generation digital financial products,” Walmart said.