Walmart Expands Direct-To-Fridge Home Delivery
Walmart is expanding access to its direct-to-fridge delivery service to 30 million U.S. households by the end of this year.
The InHome service works by allowing Walmart employees to wear body cameras to enter homes and deliver groceries and other purchases, even when customers are not in their homes.
“Now you’ve got this ultimate convenience where you get home, the refrigerator is restocked and other items like video games, clothing, toiletries and other nonperishables are on the countertop,” said Tom Ward, senior vice president of last-mile delivery at Walmart.
“We will also pick up your return if you start that process on the app; we will grab the item the next day and will process that return for you.”
The service was first launched as a pilot project in 2019 in several cities, including Kansas City, Pittsburg and Vero Beach in Florida. It was then later expanded to northwest Arkansas, Atlanta, Phoenix and Washington, D.C.
“What we’ve learned in the years we’ve been testing our InHome proposition is that customers love the convenience of having the items that they’ve ordered put in their fridge, their freezer, or left on their countertop, or in the garage when they come home. And they can just set and forget, and really do the things they want to spend their time doing,” Ward said.
Walmart plans to hire 3,000 workers to power its delivery service and will offer them real-world and virtual reality training. These new workers will be paid an average of $16.40 per hour, which is 9% higher than the company’s average wage. In addition, the company plans to leverage its 3,700 stores as fulfillment centers and electric vehicles for delivery as part of its goal to have a zero-emission logistics network by 2040.
Originally published at https://retailbum.com on January 5, 2022.
