Sales are picking up
Walmart introduces Pickup Towers to additional locations
Automated e-commerce services might soon be coming to a Walmart near you.
The retailer announced earlier this year it would be introducing Pickup Towers to stores in select markets.
It made its third Pickup Tower operational in Oklahoma this month at the Walmart in Moore at 501 SW 19, and plans to activate a fourth at an Edmond store in just days.
The towers automate a service Walmart already provided to its customers that allowed them to pick up orders of non-grocery items they bought through Walmart.com.
The goal is to make what historically has been a clunky process into one that’s more convenient for the consumer.
Kiley Raper, CEO of the Oklahoma Retail Merchants Association, said the new service is “a huge step forward” for the company.
“They have really upped their game,” she said.
How it works
A Pickup Tower typically is located less than 100 steps from the entrance of a store where it’s located.
Customers who order online from Walmart. com and live near a store that has a tower can choose the “pickup” option when they check out.
The customer gets an email confirming the order, and e-commerce store associates also are notified the order has been placed. One of those associates obtains the merchandise, boxes it and loads it into the tower for the customer, a process that takes about four hours or less.
If the item isn’t in stock and must be shipped from a vendor, Walmart orders the item and has it shipped to the appropriate store, at the company’s expense. It can take a couple of days to arrive.
Once a customer gets a second email notification that an item has been loaded into the tower, the customer visits the tower and scans a bar code in that email on his or her phone. Within seconds, the tower delivers the item to the customer to carry from the store.
Upon delivery completion, the customer gets a third and final email that confirms the package was picked up and also serves as receipt for the transaction.
“That’s how simple it is,” said Charles Conn, the e-commerce assistant manager at the Moore Walmart.
Conn said customers who don’t have email capable smartphones still can use the tower as a delivery point for products they order online, either by manually entering an order number or entering a name.
Customers that submit names to pickup orders from the tower are assisted by a Walmart associate, he said.
Adam English, the store’s manager, said Walmart’s Pickup Tower is being used at stores in northwest Arkansas and in select markets in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan, as well as in Oklahoma.
He said the company plans to add 100 more towers at stores across the country this year.
English said the Pickup Tower is a way for Walmart to stay abreast with Amazon.
“Once you walk up to the tower, it takes you eight or 10 seconds before you get what you ordered,” English said.
“That’s the biggest benefit I see; the speed and convenience it offers our customers.”
Oklahoma stores with Pickup Towers that became operational earlier this summer are in Glenpool, at 12200 S Waco Ave., and in Tulsa, at 6625 S Memorial.
A Walmart in Edmond, at 2200 W Danforth, is expected to put its Pickup Tower into service on Saturday, a company spokesperson said.
Opening round
Jake Dollarhide, the principal of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, said Walmart’s introduction of the Pickup Tower is yet another example of how the retailer is attempting to keep Amazon away from its share of the retail market.
Dollarhide believes Walmart’s Pickup Tower program intends to counter Amazon’s plans to install pickup lockers at Whole Foods locations and in leased space at convenience stores.
“Walmart is in a heavyweight battle of all time with Amazon that the retail sector has never seen,” Dollarhide said. “These are two behemoths going toeto-toe, and we are in the first round of a championship bout.
“It is no surprise to me that Walmart is investing in this infrastructure and technology. It just isn’t the big-box, discount, everyday-lowprices retailer anymore,” he said.
“It also has to be a relevant technology player, and I think we will see more moves like this from Walmart, going forward. It is just seeking to protect itself as best it can.”