Shoppers in Walmart stores can now place online Walmart.com orders with the help of store associates.
If a consumer cannot locate an item in a store—for example, if an item is out of stock, unavailable or not the right size or color—a store associate can order the item for her via a handheld touchscreen device. The customer can choose to have her item shipped to her home or to the nearest Walmart location.
Once the associate places the order, the retailer will provide the customer with a printed ticket or an email or text receipt with a bar code to take to any register within the Walmart store. The customer can pay for her order via debit/credit card, check, Walmart Pay or cash.
Currently, consumers can purchase all products sold and shipped by Walmart through this method, and the retail giant plans to add Walmart.com’s marketplace items in the near future, Walmart says, without specifying when. Walmart recently expanded free two-day shipping for orders of $35 and more to items sold by marketplace merchants.
“As busy families come to our stores to prepare for the holidays, they can feel confident that our associates will get them everything they need and quickly–whether it’s an item they can find on our store shelves, or online,” says Tom Ward, senior vice president of digital and central operations at Walmart U.S.
Walmart in November announced that it will allow in-store shoppers who are purchasing a few items to “skip the line” and check out with an employee in an aisle. Associates, who are located in the busiest parts of the store, will swipe a shopper’s credit card with a handheld device and then customers can leave the store without waiting in a cashier line.
In addition, Walmart now provides a store map for each store in the Walmart app. Shoppers can search for a product in the Walmart app, and the map will show the item’s location in the store.
Walmart is No. 3 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 500.
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