It is not only Amazon pushing the boundaries of what is possible in same day deliveries.
In a blog post Tuesday, Walmart announced its new Walmart Express Delivery service, in which customers can have rapid delivery of orders placed in the evening, with a mind-blowing promise that orders placed by 9:30 PM will somehow be delivered just 30 minutes later, by 10:00.
Supply Chain Digest Says...
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To be clear, there is no discussion of cost in the Walmart blog post, so one might assume there is a delivery fee for these late-night orders, perhaps a hefty one.
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It is not only Amazon pushing the boundaries of what is possible in same day deliveries.
In a blog post Tuesday, Walmart announced its new Walmart Express Delivery service, in which customers can have rapid delivery of orders placed in the evening, with a mind-blowing promise that orders placed by 9:30 PM will somehow be delivered just 30 minutes later, by 10:00.
In introducing the service, Walmart said “We’ve all been there. The workday is finally finished, dinner and the dishes are done, when suddenly it hits you: You don’t have a gift for tomorrow’s party, cookies for the school fundraiser, or, the ultimate nightmare, you’ve run out of your favorite coffee pods. And the clock won’t quit ticking.”
Walmart now says it is addressing this scenario with this late-night delivery service for on-line orders at over 4,000 stores nationwide.
This is really interesting for several reasons. Those include just the logistics hoops Walmart will have to jump through to execute the strategy (seemingly impossible) – and the fact that only a retailer with thousands of stores could pull this off.
Even then, SCDigest notes, there must be some constraint relative to distance from a store for this delivery time to be offered.
It would seem Amazon would not be able to do this with fulfillment center-based delivery, as the distance to the customer is usually greater than that for Walmart stores. In addition, picks for the order would seem to be able to be performed faster at a Walmart store than at an Amazon FC.
To be clear, there is no discussion of cost in the Walmart blog post, so one might assume there is a delivery fee for these late-night orders, perhaps a hefty one.
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 Walmart also took the opportunity of the blog post to reinforce some of its other fulfillment offerings. Those include:
On-Demand Delivery: Walmart customers can arrange same-day delivery and choose a time that best suits their schedule.
Live Shopper: This feature enables real-time text communication with a personal shopper, allowing customers to discuss substitutions or add items last minute.
Walmart+ InHome: Walmart+ (Walmart’s answer to Amazon Prime) members have the option to add InHome service to their membership, which allows customers to have items delivered straight to their fridge or placed on their countertop. InHome also offers pickup for customer returns, taking the item straight back to the store for them. Walmart InHome is currently available in 46 markets.
“Whether the items are delivered late-night, really fast or the next day, the power is firmly in the hands of the customer,” the Walmart blog post concludes, adding, “So, whether it’s cookies, an extra set of headphones, or a new coffee pot, the closest store to customers – at any time, in any place – remains the one in their pocket: the Walmart app.”
We’ll be interested to see Amazon’s reaction.
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