Walmart kicks off delivery service for other businesses

Walmart has launched a white-label “delivery as a service” that offers its e-commerce and logistics capabilities to other businesses, including small to large retailers.

Called Walmart GoLocal, the solution provides API integration with the business customer’s e-commerce front end and a platform for express, scheduled and unscheduled deliveries, with the service bearing the retailer’s brand, Walmart said Tuesday.

Potential GoLocal users include companies seeking peer-to-peer delivery, small businesses and leading national retailers, according to Walmart. Products that can be delivered run the gamut of consumer goods, from groceries and general merchandise to oversize items and offerings with complex requirements, the Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant said.

“We’ve worked hard to develop a reliable last-mile delivery program for our customers,” Tom Ward, senior vice president of last mile at Walmart U.S., said in a statement. “Now we’re pleased to be able to use these capabilities to serve another set of customers: local merchants. Be it delivering goods from a local bakery to auto supplies from a national retailer, we’ve designed Walmart GoLocal to be customizable for merchants of all sizes and categories so they can focus on doing what they do best, leaving delivery speed and efficiency to us.”

Related:Walmart offers its e-commerce know-how to other retailers

Walmart GoLocal works as follows: Consumers place orders with participating businesses, their e-commerce platforms “ping” the GoLocal platform and drivers are dispatched for delivery. Feedback on the delivery experience also is captured. For the deliveries, GoLocal distributes orders to third-party service providers via Walmart’s Spark Driver program, available in more than 600 cities. Drivers receive orders through the Spark Driver App and then complete the deliveries.

Walmart said it already has entered GoLocal contractual agreements with “a number of” national and enterprise retail clients and is accepting new merchant partners. Plans also call for GoLocal to expand its roster of offerings.

“In an era where customers have come to expect speed and reliability, it’s more important than ever for businesses to work with a service provider that understands a merchant’s needs,” stated John Furner, Walmart U.S. president and CEO.

Walmart said it already has landed GoLocal contracts with 'a number of' national and enterprise retail clients.

In launching GoLocal, Walmart cited its e-commerce innovation and track record of executing delivery services at scale with efficiency. The company noted that in three years it rolled out and scaled delivery and Express delivery for customers on over 160,000 items from more than 3,000 stores, covering almost 70% of the U.S. population and extending the reach delivery network via drones, autonomous vehicles and market fulfillment centers.

Related:Walmart kicks off automation of 25 regional distribution centers

Walmart GoLocal’s debut just under a month after Walmart unveiled plans to provide e-commerce technology, logistics and related services to other businesses seeking solutions to spur digital commerce. That includes a partnership with Adobe to integrate the Walmart Marketplace third-party retailer e-commerce program, in-store fulfillment and pickup technologies with the Adobe Commerce platform.

The GoLocal service also dovetails with Walmart’s strategy to diversify its revenue streams and profit pools through initiatives such as Walmart Connect and Walmart Fulfillment Services.

“Walmart has spent years building and scaling commerce capabilities that support our network of more than 4,700 stores,” Furner added, “and we look forward to helping other businesses have access to the same reliable, quality and low-cost services.”