Walmart & Uber Move Grocery Delivery Beyond Just a Test

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — After a successful test in the Phoenix market, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and rideshare service Uber have expanded their partnership to bring grocery delivery service to the Orlando, Fla., and Dallas markets.

Walmart, in an effort to satisfy its customers' desire for an efficient delivery option, has been testing different programs over the course of the last year. The mega-retailer launched a pilot grocery delivery program with Uber last June in Phoenix, while rolling out a program with Lyft in Denver, and testing delivery via its own associates earlier this summer.

“Last year, we began testing grocery delivery through crowd-sourced services like Uber. Here’s what we’ve learned: Customers like you love the convenience of a delivery option,” Walmart said on its blog.

Under the partnership with Uber in Orlando and Dallas, residents in those markets can build an online basket at Walmart.com/grocery, place an order and select a delivery time. Walmart’s personal shoppers will then pick and scan the items, and request an Uber delivery partner to retrieve the packed order and deliver it to the customer.

Among Walmart’s other pilot programs for maximizing customer convenience are its self-service Pickup Towers, as Convenience Store News previously reported.  Introduced last year in the company's hometown of Bentonville, Walmart's Pickup Towers are now available in more than a dozen stores.

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