Walmart Takes Home Delivery to the Fridge Level

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is testing a new service that delivers groceries directly to a customer's house — and to the inside of their refrigerator.

The test is being carried out in Silicon Valley in partnership with August Home, a San Francisco-based provider of smart locks and other smart home accessories. A small group of the provider's customers opted to participate in the test.

Users of the service can place an order on Walmart.com for various items, including groceries, which will then be retrieved and transported by a driver from Menlo Park, Calif.-based same-day-delivery provider Deliv. If no one answers the door, a one-time, preauthorized passcode can be used to enter the home and complete the delivery, all while allowing the customer to monitor the delivery in real-time via a security system feed through their smart devices. Users also may receive notifications of when the delivery person unlocks and locks the front door.

"We asked the question: 'What if Walmart could help busy families like mine ensure my fridge was always well stocked? What if we created a service that not only did my grocery shopping and brought everything to my home, but even went so far as to put it directly into my fridge?'" Walmart said in a statement. "And, what if it was even more convenient because this 'in-fridge delivery' happened while I was at work or off doing other things?"

In the future, Walmart plans to offer other location options for delivery, from inside the house or fridge to the garage

"These tests are a natural evolution of what Walmart is all about — an obsession in saving our customers not just money but also time, making our customers' lives easier in the process," the company added. "What might seem novel today could be the standard tomorrow."

Bentonville-based Walmart has more than 11,539 stores under 63 banners in 28 countries, and e-commerce websites in 11 countries.

To read the full story, check out Convenience Store News sister publication Progressive Grocer.