News

Walmart expands distribution network for faster delivery of online orders

October 3, 2013

Walmart announced this week plans to open two new fulfillment centers that the retailer said will allow it to deliver online customer orders faster and at a lower cost.

One center will be located in Fort Worth, Texas, and another in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which will be the retailer's largest distribution center to date.

To support its growth, Walmart said it will continue to expand its use of large-scale online fulfillment centers, and is also leveraging online fulfillment areas within its distribution centers and utilizing stores to ship online orders directly to customers. More than 10 percent of units ordered on Walmart.com are now shipped to a customer's door from a store, and more than 50 percent of these orders are delivered in two days or less, according to a news release.

This holiday season customers will have access to more than five million products on Walmart.com, which is over twice as many as last year, Walmart said in the release. The company expects that number to reach the tens of millions in the coming years. Walmart expects sales from its e-commerce business to exceed $10 billion globally this fiscal year, and announced global growth of 30 percent in the quarter ended July 31.

"With our dedicated online facilities and 4,100 stores within five miles of two-thirds of the U.S. population, we gain a significant advantage by being positioned in the most important location — close to our customers," said Joel Anderson, president and CEO of Walmart.com. "This unique combination allows us to get more products to our customers faster and at a lower cost."

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