The world’s largest retailer, Walmart, has revealed it will be piloting in-store collection lockers in its home market.
The declaration was made at Walmart’s first global media ecommerce day on March 26.
Walmart.com chief executive Joel Anderson revealed that the retailer will install lockers in 12 US stores to hold goods ordered online for customer collection.
Other initiatives include plans to extend the pilot of shipping online orders from bricks-and-mortar stores. The retailer said it believes using shops as fulfilment centres will allow it to offer same-day or next-day delivery “at very low cost”.
It’s well known that Walmart has for a long time lagged behind others in ecommerce as its development of a multichannel strategy has been painfully slow.
However, it has begun to take competition from pure-plays and retailers with an online presence more seriously.
The logic behind the new multichannel strategy is unquestionable. Key findings from Planet Retail’s own online shopper data suggest 16% of etail consumers use click-and-collect, while 10% already use collection lockers.
Changing consumer trends are being driven largely by busy lifestyles and the desire for convenience - 51% of online customers in the US would be encouraged to shop on a website if it was more convenient to receive their purchases using self-collection services such as in-store collection.
Most interesting is the differential between the figure for those who say they would like to make use of in-store collection (51%) and those who actually use collection lockers (10%). The gap represents an opportunity for retailers and, given its national reach, Walmart is well-positioned to fulfil shoppers’ desires for more convenient collection through its network of 4,600-plus stores.
A nationwide roll-out of the lockers would incur big costs and Walmart is likely to be faced with operational issues.
Its Supercentres average more than 180,000 sq ft, so space is not an issue. More relevant would be ensuring the fulfilment of orders and effective delivery of goods to the lockers. The answer is likely to be dedicated staff - another cost on top of the initial set-up of the lockers.
That said, Walmart is top dog in the US as well as being a hugely profitable international business, and such capex hurdles are not so vast that they cannot be overcome in return for longer-term rewards.
- For more information about Planet Retail’s Ecommerce Shopper Insight contact robyn.ashman@4c.PlanetRetail.net
No comments yet