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Walmart Testing Ways to Better Serve Online, In-Store Shoppers
Retailer focusing on omni-assortment, inventory speed, pick rates and checkout experience. The retailer has launched four test centers with the goal of finding solutions to help its stores operate as both physical shopping destinations and online fulfillment centers.
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Walmart test centerPhotograph courtesy of Walmart
Walmart is launching new test stores with the purpose of finding solutions to help its stores operate as both physical shopping destinations and online fulfillment centers.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer said in an online blog that it has identified four stores—two currently operating and two to come—across the U.S. to serve as test centers, where it will rotate new technology, digital tools and physical enhancements in and out of the stores. Product and technology teams will be embedded in the stores to prototype, test and iterate solutions in real time, scaling what works and scrapping what doesn’t.
Some of the areas it is focusing on are:
Omni-Assortment: In its first test store, Walmart has moved most of the in-store apparel assortment online, and will continue to identify other hard-to-manage categories that it can work to make available. John Crecelius, SVP of associate product and next generation stores for Walmart U.S., said this will help Walmart learn what it takes to make all eligible items in the store truly omni—available for customers online and in the store.
Inventory Speed: Walmart recently developed an app that speeds up the time it takes to get items from the backroom to the sales floor. Instead of scanning each box individually, associates just hold up a handheld device, and the app uses augmented reality to highlight the boxes that are ready to go.
First-Time Pick Rate: The retailer is also testing how it can use a combination of in-store signage and handheld devices to help its associates identify an item’s location picking online order, which will help fill orders faster. Crecelius said the percentage of times associates find the item on their first attempt has gone up by 20% in some of the categories that can be harder to pick.
The Checkout Experience: The test stores will continue to build upon a new experimental checkout experience Walmart introduced earlier this year to help transform a transactional experience into a relational one. Walmart will continue to test different hardware and software solutions focused on enhancing and reimagining a contact-free checkout experience for customers.
“In this new era of retail, assets that used to serve a single purpose will transform into flexible, scalable assets that can be used in multiple ways to serve customers how, when and where they need,” Crecelius said in the blog. “Evolving our stores is just the beginning. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll share more about how we’re reimagining our other physical assets to better serve the needs of customers today and into the future.”
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