Walmart to Make Digital Shopping More Local & Personal

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart unveiled the first look at its new website that promises to make shopping faster and easier for busy families, while creating a cleaner and more modern digital shopping experience.

"It is a dramatic step change for us," stated Marc Lore, president and CEO of Walmart U.S. ecommerce.

The new Walmart.com will start rolling out to customers in the beginning of May. Changes will include:

New look and feel

According to Lore, to bring a more human element to the site, Walmart is featuring relatable photography that showcases real-life moments, making it compelling for customers to shop for whatever they’re looking for — whether diapers, laundry detergent or a new dining room table.

"We’re also expanding our color palette and adding fonts to bring more vibrancy and depth to the site," the Walmart exec noted.

Form and function

The revamped website is adding more local and personalized elements. It will introduce a new section that showcase top-selling items in a customer’s location, as well as his or her local store profile, including availability of services like Online Grocery, order status and Easy Reorder, which allows customers to easily repurchase the items they buy most frequently in-store and online.

Specialty shopping experiences

Walmart has already launched a home specialty experience and in the coming weeks will begin to introduce its new destination for fashion, which will feature relevant, bold imagery and seasonal stories. The Lord & Taylor flagship store the retailer announced late last year will be part of the this new fashion destination.

Although the site will look different, Lore said that Walmart’s commitment to offering low prices online is as strong as ever. The retailer offers free two-day shipping without a membership fee and services like free Pickup in stores.

The president and CEO went on to say that not only did customers inspire the pending changes, but that Walmart considered feedback from current and prospective brands as it looks to continue building its assortment. With these changes, brands will have opportunities to better tell their stories on Walmart.com, including new approaches to advertising within seamlessly integrated ads, he noted.

"Introducing the new Walmart.com is an important step as we continue to build the customer shopping experience. Today’s announcement is just the beginning. There’s more to come," Lore concluded.

Headquartered in Bentonville, Walmart has 4,700 locations nationwide.