Walmart to consumers: Let your fingers do the shopping

Walmart wants you to let your fingers do the grocery ordering.

The retail giant on Wednesday announced the systemwide rollout of Text to Shop, a new feature available on all iOS and Android devices. The ordering platform was introduced in a public beta test in March 2021.

The texting function connects to a shopper’s Walmart account, providing access to an individual’s most-ordered items. Shoppers can text “reorder” to review and add frequently ordered items to their carts. Or they can type the name of any product available at local Walmart stores or on Walmart.com.

Consumers can then checkout via text or through the Walmart app.

The new functionality was built with Walmart’s Global Tech team, with input from actual customers, the company said.

“Run out of protein powder making your morning smoothie? Text Walmart to add it to your cart,” the retailer said in a statement. “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. Planning a backyard campout with the kids? Make sure to add s’mores fixings to your list, then schedule for delivery to give yourself extra time to enjoy with the kiddos.”

When a WGB editor tried multiple times to sign up for the Android version of Text to Shop on Wednesday, however, she received an “undefined error” and was not able to enroll.

Text to Shop is a further iteration of Walmart’s “conversational shopping” initiatives that started in 2017. Walmart built a Conversational Commerce portfolio company within its Nº8 incubation arm to develop voice and text shopping capabilities.

“To do this well, we designed Walmart’s conversational shopping experiences to meet customers where they are—meaning on their preferred devices—and to communicate naturally, by allowing customers to simply ask for what they want, any way they want,” the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer said in January.

Walmart said at the beginning of 2022 that it had been granted three patents for its voice shopping platform, with 22 others pending, and that the retailer had formed partnerships with Apple and Google to make sure shoppers could use the functions on their devices.

Text shopping started on a small scale for Walmart in 2018. Walmart’s Conversational Commerce team launched in February 2020.

It’s little wonder Walmart would want to make ordering as easy as possible, especially for its fast-growing grocery business.

In November, Walmart reported its food and beverage sales outpaced all other categories, as it gained grocery market share and saw growing interest from higher-income shoppers. Walmart’s same-store sales grew 8.2% during the third quarter, while its grocery business saw growth in the mid-teens, the company said.