Yahoo Mail users can buy ‘Groceries from Walmart’ right from inbox

Verizon Media has launched an online grocery service that enables Yahoo Mail users to make Walmart purchases directly from their inbox.

Called “Groceries from Walmart,” the service marks the first time that an email provider allows users to fill a shopping cart straight from their email inbox, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Verizon Media said Monday. Verizon acquired Yahoo in a $4.5 billion deal that closed in June 2017.

To access Groceries from Walmart, consumers download the Yahoo Mail iOS mobile or desktop app (an Android version is due out later this year) or sign up for Yahoo Mail at mail.yahoo.com. Users will get personalized grocery recommendations from Walmart based on their Yahoo profiles. Clicking on the emails they receive in their inbox, consumer can browse grocery items, add them to their cart and complete the transactions with Walmart within Yahoo Mail.

Verizon noted that the service streamlines the shopping experience by enabling Yahoo Mail users to make grocery purchases from Walmart, the world’s largest grocery retailer, within the mail app they use daily to track promotions, coupons and other functions. In addition, the shopping cart never expires, allow consumers to keep adding items throughout the week and check out whenever they’re ready.

Related:Is the new online grocery shopper here to stay?

“Customers are leaning on Walmart more than ever for us to help them save on items they need the most, but also to help save them time,” Rich Lehrfeld, senior vice president of Walmart Marketing, said in a statement. “The new Groceries from Walmart feature that lives within Yahoo Mail takes one more step out of our customers’ days, helping them shop when, how and where they want.”

Last year, Yahoo Mail rolled out a new app with Grocery View, a new tool that shows users deals at local grocery stores. Yahoo Mail users can save the deals to their shopping lists plus connect their store loyalty card to automatically apply the saved coupons at checkout. With Groceries from Walmart, users now have the ability to shop Walmart’s grocery catalogue whenever they want and add the items to a shopping cart within Yahoo Mail for pickup from a local Walmart store.

“Because of the unprecedented coronavirus challenge, online grocery shopping is now the new normal, and Verizon Media is well-positioned to take advantage of the behavior shifts,” commented Guru Gowrappan, CEO of Verizon Media. “We’re proud to partner with Walmart on this industry-first feature, helping Yahoo Mail users more easily browse and buy essential groceries without having to leave their inbox, saving them time and helping them organize their lives through enhanced and innovative experiences within their email.”

Related:Google Assistant is ready to take shoppers’ Walmart orders

Verizon Media added that it aims to capture offline-to-online customer behavior and creates a more integrated shopping experience for its approximately 900 million users. The company noted that a May survey by Inmar Intelligence found that nearly 80% of U.S. consumers are now shopping online for groceries, up about from pre-pandemic levels of just under 40%. Almost 60% also said they are shopping for groceries online more often now than before the outbreak.

Currently, one in four Americans use Yahoo Mail, which delivers 4.5 billion emails daily, according to Verizon Media. The company said Yahoo Mail is available in over 40 countries and 70 languages, with about 200 million monthly active users worldwide and 3.5% growth in worldwide mobile visitors year over year.

Last year, Walmart announced Walmart Voice Order, a new service from Yahoo rival Google that lets customers to order groceries by voice on any device with the Google Assistant. Walmart Voice Order stems from a partnership that Walmart and Google unveiled in August 2017 to enable the Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant to offer hundreds of thousands of items for voice shopping via Google Assistant. The effort focused on creating the ability for customers to build a highly personalized shopping basket from recommendations based on their previous purchases of everyday essentials, including the integration of Walmart’s Easy Reorder feature into the Google Express shopping service.