Walmart To Go – Will it Stay? | RetailCustomerExperience.com

Walmart To Go – Will it Stay?
Tags: Consumer Behavior, Customer Experience, Marketing, Multichannel Retailing, Supermarkets & Grocery Stores
May 6, 2011

For all of those consumers who would never go to Walmart, the hyperchain has found a way to come to you.The world's largest retailer is testing a home-delivery concept, called Walmart To Go, in San Jose, Calif. With this service, Walmart may bridge one of the toughest obstacles a low-priced, over-lit, gigantic store could face: getting people who would not be caught dead in its aisles to shop there.

After all, there is a benefit to ordering paper towels, detergent, cereal and a fifth of vodka at 11 p.m. and having it all arrive the next morning — that is, if the delivery price is low. According to the New York Times, delivery starts at $5. And no — tips are not accepted.

Being in the testing stages, Walmart To Go is a bit young to deliver solid results. But I am more interested in whether it will build loyalty, especially among non-Walmart customers.

Traditional supermarket chains should be hard at work devising new ways to maintain the loyalty of their own shoppers, by offering richer and easier in-store experiences, good prices and great products. This means regularly creating new in-store experiences, from cooking classes to wine tastings. It also means keeping the selection fresh and relevant, and the staff helpful and knowledgeable.

It doesn't sound hard, but when you're earning 2 cents on every dollar of sales, every bruised banana, every employee hour and every broken bottle matters. Fortunately, supermarket chains have become quite adept at anticipating and serving our needs.

Let's hope Walmart To Go raises the bar for everyone, so that the shoppers benefit whether they stay at home, or go.

Reader Comments

Gail Nichols

about 13 months ago

Walmart just eliminated the consumer’s need to navigate traffic, long cashier line-ups and miles of walking in stores: when they could be golfing, at the ball game or enjoying their family ! Smart People – They recognized and acted upon the obvious consumer needs and wants as well as offset the various problems people experience in shopping at Walmart stores.

NOW THAT’S TOUGH TO BEAT – And of course they planned it this way and are looking for as much lead time as they can get by telling you it’s only a test and only groceries. BUT THEY ARE ALREADY DELIVERING THEIR ENTIRE RETAIL PRODUCT RANGE IN THE UK, MEXICO AND JAPAN. So, Walmart To Go is no test and it’s not just groceries in the long run.

Visionary retail leaders will seize the opportunity to improve on Walmart's Project Titan initiatives and become the industry leaders by eclipsing Walmart’s Same-Day Pick Up & Next-Day Delivery with 1-Hour In-Store Shopping & Delivery by http://www.TheNowMall.com, which even Walmart cannot beat. And Walmart probably won’t try to match it for some time to come.
Judith Ricker

about 12 months ago

Rather than "getting people who would not be caught dead in its aisles to shop there," Walmart To Go should first work to attract customers who already shop at the retail giant, but only occasionally.

In a new syndicated Market Probe study that seeks to understand Brand Passion in the US Retail market, we found that not only are occasional past-6-month shoppers less Passionate about the brand than their neighbors who shop at the store more frequently, they are significantly less likely to find the store to be Convenient, Well Laid Out, and Willing to Try New Ideas. Almost 4 in 10 frequent shoppers say they already shop at Walmart both online and in person, versus half that number of occasional shoppers. The marketing investment to entice non-customers to Walmart To Go may not be worth the return, but moving even a modest percentage of occasional shoppers already predisposed to the brand to give it a try should reap large rewards.

Judith Ricker
EVP Brand Research
Market Probe
http://www.marketprobe.com