Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will begin testing the delivery of groceries using Uber and Lyft drivers, aiming to match the convenience of services offered by Amazon.com Inc. and other e-commerce companies.
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To place an order for home delivery, a customer in one of the test locations goes online and selects the preferred delivery window. Once the order is ready, the store will call an Uber or Lyft cab that will pick up the packages and deliver them to customers, who will be charged between $7 and $10 for home delivery. That’s in addition to a quiet pilot program that started in March 2016 with Deliv for its Sam’s Club customers that involves delivery of general merchandise and grocery for business members in Miami.
“We’re thrilled about the possibility of delivering new convenient options to our customers, and about working with some transformative companies in this test”, Michael Bender, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Wal-Mart Global e-commerce wrote in a blog posted Friday.
A last-mile delivery program would mark a direct challenge to Amazon, which has expanded its AmazonFresh grocery delivery service to several cities across the US. Walmart will be testing this program with Uber in Phoenix and with Lyft in Denver, Bloomberg reports.
The new service also could help Wal-Mart keep costs down, in line with its strategy of providing products at discount prices.
Amazon expects to have Prime Now available in more than 50 markets by the end of June, according to CNBC.
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The announcement of the pilots comes a day after Walmart said it was just six to nine months away from deploying drones in its warehouses in the US. In recent years, Uber has tried its hand at transporting everything from designer suits in NY to toothpaste in Washington, D.C.
