Walmart are doing something interesting that just about no other marketplace can do, certainly not Amazon. Walmart Marketplace goods are starting to be stored in their stores, utilising some of the back rooms that would normally handle goods in and stock to go on the shelves.
Normally, these goods from third party merchants would be store in massive Walmart Fulfilment Services warehouse, or in the merchants’ own warehouses or other 3PLs. By moving the stock into store, it means that some Walmart Marketplace products will be available for immediate pick up or delivery, often is as little as three hours.
When you consider Amazon’s operations, whilst they have gigantic fulfiment centres, they do store some product in local logistics hubs and, rumour has it, even in lockers for fast moving goods (think batteries, FireTV sticks etc). But Amazon don’t have a store network and Walmart does and that’s their big differentiator.
Holding Walmart marketplace goods in store is currently a small pilot in the Dallas area, but if this works we can expect it to be rolled out more widely. Advances in their supply chain have resulted in store stock arriving pre-sorted for shelves in-store, and this has freed up back room space which can now be used for Walmart marketplace stock.
This pilot is Walmarts answer to Amazon’s vast logistics network and a way to get goods closer to the end customer for faster delivery or pick up in store. Watch this space, store storage will still be limited, so it’s likely that only the most popular fast moving goods will make it into local stores, but for those who’s products are selected it could be a game-changer.
