Walmart, which made new last with the announcement that it would make its powerful Transportation Management System (TMS) available to the general market, this week announced a series of moves that extends it logistics capabilities and infrastructure outside the company.
Supply Chain Digest Says... |
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That includes a new offering coming soon that will provide fulfillment services from its large DC network for virtually any retailer, not just those selling on Walmart’s Marketplace service. Those services, putting Walmart clearly in the 3PL arena, are end-to-end, including storage, pick/pack/ship, and returns processing.
The new offering, called Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS), will start doing business September 10. As consumers place orders on other sites, such as Walmart rival Target’s Marketplace, the orders will be routed to WFS for fulfillment. Clients orders will ship in unbranded cartons and envelopes.
SCDigest assumes the service will be available to companies simply selling off their own web sites as well.
The strategy mirrors a program launched by Amazon in 2023, which offers an end-to-end logistics service, called Supply Chain by Amazon.
That service, the Wall Street Journal reports, is designed to give businesses a single place to manage all their logistics and leverage Amazon’s delivery infrastructure to fulfill orders through any online platform.
Walmart says it has “ample capacity” in its DC network to handle the new volumes as a 3PL.
That wasn’t the only logistics news this week from Walmart.
Walmart also announced that it would begin a service to handle imports on behalf of its merchants from ports of origin in Asia to Walmart’s US distribution centers.
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 What’s more, Walmart announced it will offer sellers access to less-than-truckload and full-truckload shipments at discounted rates. How this will work in practice, and whether it is only available for shipments going to Walmart, is unclear.
Manish Joneja, Walmart’s senior vice president of US marketplace and Walmart Fulfillment Services, said the efforts are meant to help sellers handle the complicated and expensive logistics of importing and transporting goods as well as fulfilling online orders for delivery to customers.
“If I’m a seller, I want to focus on my product. I want to focus on my customer. I need help with logistics, supply chain, different elements,” Joneja told the Wall Street Journal.
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