Walmart+, the $98 per year subscription program the company insists isn’t competing with Amazon Prime when it is, will launch Sept. 15, offering free same-day delivery on 160,000 items. Monthly membership is $12.95, similar to Prime, and a 15-day free trial is available. Members of Delivery Unlimited will automatically revert to Walmart+.
Amazon has finally opened the doors of its hybrid Amazon Fresh store in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles, a futuristic blend of digital and physical challenging traditional grocers that had been put on hold this spring due to the COVID-19 crisis. Customers can breeze through checkout and navigate the store via Alexa.
As e-grocery adoption continues to grow, with 60% saying they had bought online in the past month, up from 52% in March, Walmart has surpassed Amazon as the most-shopped online grocer, according to weekly data published by Coresight Research. There was also a dip in those reporting avoidance of public places and malls.
Walmart said its ecommerce sales nearly doubled in the second quarter, rising 97% to over $10 billion as it reaped the benefits of major digital investments and initiatives over the past several years amid a massive surge in pandemic-influenced online buying.
Kroger plans to launch a marketplace this fall through a partnership with French platform provider Mirakl, adding 50,000 items from sellers initially to its assortment, including toys and household goods in addition to specialty foods, international foods and natural and organic items. The marketplace is an expansion of Kroger Ship.
After putting it off for four months due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Walmart plans to finally roll out its own $98 a year subscription program this month to challenge the outright dominance of Amazon Prime. It will reportedly include access to Walmart’s new two-hour grocery delivery service, deals and discount gas, Recode reported.
Walmart has made another move in the never-ending ecommerce battle with market leader Amazon, through an alliance with ecommerce platform titan Shopify that gives Shopify’s 1 million-plus merchants access to Walmart’s online marketplace.
Amazon is in advanced talks to acquire self-driving car startup Zoox as it looks to expand its autonomous vehicle capabilities to address massive delivery costs, according to the Wall Street Journal. It has already invested heavily in autonomous technology, contributing to funding rounds for Aurora Innovation and Rivian Automotive LLC.
An everyday low price strategy can be a winner, but this comes with an asterisk. Such a self-limiting strategy can only work for a specific type of company and it requires a certain approach. And with COVID-19 disrupting any normalcy in retail, we need to examine whether companies embracing EDLP are faring better or worse right now.
On the same day it was announced Deliv was winding down its operations this summer, it came out that Target is in talks to snap up some of Deliv’s technology assets to bolster its local ecommerce fulfillment and bring founding CEO Daphne Carmelli onboard, NBC reported. Others had reportedly been looking at Deliv, including grocers.