Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is
experimenting same-day deliveries of toys, televisions and other general
merchandise purchased online in a few US markets as a way to find methods of
coping up with competitors and to lure busy shoppers this holiday season.
The test conducted by ‘Walmart To Go’ service
started in Northern Virginia and Philadelphia in the starting of the month and
is geared up to expand to Minneapolis on Tuesday, as per Walmart. Afterwards,
the firm plans on expanding the test to California’s market sometime in late
October or early November.
The most recent comes at a time when the
world’s largest retailer is experiencing increasingly steep competition from Amazon.com,
Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN) and other web retailers. The new test gives Walmart a chance
to associate its updates website with its thousands of stores so as to make the
chain more expedient for shoppers.
The test happens to be not the only way that
Walmart is trying to reach out to its thousands of stores through its online
business. Bill Simon, Walmart US President said in September that the firm uses
a group of stores around the country fulfil online demands that reduces
shipping charges as well as time.
In the same speech at a Goldman Sachs event,
Simon had mentioned that Walmart was silently playing with same-day delivery
but he did not reveal much about the markets that may have been the
participants.
In the new test, shoppers in the Northern
Virgina, Minneapolis and Philadelphia markets can pay $10 flat charge for
same-day delivery of items that are picked from general merchandise items
carried in local stores. Consumers can choose an unlimited number of those
items.
Customers in those three markets must register,
place their orders by noon and pick one of the three four-hour windows for
delivery later in that very day. The goods are then delivered through United
Parcel Service Inc.
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