May 20, 2020
By Janey Whiteside, Chief Customer Officer, Walmart
In early March, we announced we were bringing the Walmart Grocery and Walmart App experiences together to make it easier for customers to shop everything from fresh groceries to apparel, electronics and more. This move also means that customers can use in-store services like Walmart Pay, Store Maps and Item Finder from one primary destination – the Walmart App.
As customers have begun using the new experience, we’ve been listening to them and engaging with their feedback. We’ve also been helping them transition to the new app, answering questions along the way.
Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen another impact of COVID-19 – a surge in adoption of online and mobile shopping, with millions of shoppers relying on Walmart to get what they need for their families. In fact, leading mobile data and analytics platform App Annie recently noted that our Online Grocery app was No. 1 in the App Store as customers turned at an unprecedented pace to pickup and delivery services – which is why we think there is no better time than now to integrate our two apps and bring them an even better, more comprehensive experience. We don’t ask customers to make two trips to the store, one for groceries and one for all the other things they need, so we shouldn’t ask them to visit two apps.
Fifty percent of all online grocery orders are already coming from the new experience, and as customers have moved to the unified app experience, there’s been an uptick in those same customers ordering general merchandise items like toys and gardening tools as they shop for their grocery essentials.
The Walmart App will enable all customers to take advantage of the new experience. To do this is no easy feat – our technology team has been testing and iterating around the clock to bring these two apps together. And, having just one app allows us to create more seamless customer experiences now and in the future.
Here’s what we’ve done so far:
- More Pickup and Delivery Availability: We’ve added hundreds of thousands of new slots for Online Grocery pickup, creating greater access and availability for customers to reserve a time and get essentials. We’ve also added additional information and notifications via app, email and text message to communicate regarding pickup and delivery. And we’ve designed the app so that seniors, first responders and those with underlying medical conditions can easily identify and reserve "at-risk only" time slots.
- Express Delivery: Customers can reserve a no-contact pickup or delivery time or, where available, leverage Express Delivery to have items delivered to their doors in less than two hours.
- Prescription Refills, Curbside Pickup & Mail Delivery: Customers can use the app to refill prescriptions, including drive-thru. And now, exclusively in the Walmart App, customers can select “Curbside Pickup” or select a mail delivery option to receive prescriptions right at their doors.
- Payment & Cash Back: Customers can make touch-free payments at any Walmart register using Walmart Pay from the Walmart App. When customers use their Capital One Walmart Rewards Card with Walmart Pay, they can earn 5% cash back during the first 12 months.
New customers can download the Walmart App from the iOS and Android app stores. Current Grocery app users’ information and carts will be seamlessly transferred into the Walmart App once customers have downloaded it and signed in.
Check out the below video to help you get the best experience from the Walmart App:
We will continue to innovate and iterate the app and will keep doing everything we can to help make customers’, and our associates’, lives easier.
