Walmart?s Partnership With Uber And Lyft

Posted by John Smith on January 16th, 2017

Walmart has announced a new pilot program that will involve the retail giant partnering with ridesharing companies; Uber and Lyft. This program will facilitate the delivery of groceries ordered online by its customers.

How it Works

Customers would place an order online and Walmart employees would prepare the items and prep for delivery. The employees would then call an Uber or Lyft driver to deliver the order. The customer will pay a to delivery charge to Walmart.

What This May Mean

Interestingly, Forbes statistics show that groceries account for more than 50% of Walmart’s revenues. Providing convenient delivery options to consumers who account for 50% of its earnings is a well-deserved priority for Walmart. This move will not only ensure retention of customers, but would also encourage new customers to try out the service.

My Thoughts

Beyond just providing convenience to consumers, this partnership would spare Walmart the cost of developing its own delivery infrastructure around last mile.

To buttress this point, an article by Forbes stated: “if the company is able to effectively leverage the network of services such as Uber and Lyft, it can lower its delivery costs without compromising on consumer convenience.” It is also possible that they are trying to make things easier for their users who already use the Uber app for transport. Reports compiled by 1010 data, reveal that nearly 13% of Walmart users in the U.S. also use Uber or Lyft.

It is not presumptuous as well to assume that Walmart may be trying to leverage on Uber and Lyft’s reputable means of transportation – therefore luring Uber and Lyft lovers into their customer base.

For Uber, most of these partnerships are an acceleration in the quest to deliver seamlessness in everything transportation– Uber for Everything.

The Larger Scale For Walmart

Walmart is working on ways to increase its competitive edge against fellow retail giant Amazon who just expanded its Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service to several cities across the US. However, Walmart’s new delivery program may cause lower delivery fees for consumers by leveraging on the mileage to be gained by partnering with Uber and Lyft.