Walmart adds ‘Text to Shop’ in time for holidays

Walmart is rolling out a “Text to Shop” feature that allows customers to add items to their online shopping basket using text messages, among other functionalities.

The feature had been in multiple beta tests since March 2021, after appearing in 2018 as a feature of Jet Black, a Walmart ecommerce concept that offered personalized shopping via text messages, focused on serving high-end shoppers in New York City. That service was discontinued in 2020.

The newly rolled out Text to Shop solution allows customers to search for and choose from items available in their local store as well as items on Walmart.com, and facilitates reordering from a saved shopping list. It also allows customers to view their online cart and add or remove items, and it can be used to schedule both store pickup and delivery.

Because it is tied to customers’ Walmart accounts, Text to Shop activities also show up on the customer’s Walmart app and online, the company said.

“Run out of protein powder making your morning smoothie? Text Walmart to add it to your cart.,” the company said in a blog promoting the new service. “Hosting a few more people at the dinner table tonight than you originally planned? Text Walmart to quickly reorder the ingredients you need and schedule your pickup.”

The company lists some functionality that is not available through Text to Shop, including updating credit card information on an account and using coupons or discount codes. Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) payments are also currently no allowed on Text to Shop, but the company said on its website that it is “working on it.”

Customers can also use Text to Shop to amend a previously placed order up to three hours before an order is scheduled for pickup or is scheduled to go out for delivery, but they must go through the app or website to can an order.

The move comes not only just in time for last-minute holiday shopping, but also as consumers increasingly shop using their phones. Research firm eMarketer recently predicted that mobile commerce sales in the U.S. would surpass $728 billion by 2025, up from $359 billion in 2021.

“[Mobile commerce] is poised to burst into the mainstream thanks to a host of technological advances that are making it easier for users to shop on their phones,” eMarketer said in its report.