Source: Walmart
Walmart is ready to deliver ‘Black Friday Deals for Days’
Walmart is making three updates to its delivery options to make it even more convenient for customers to shop online during the holiday season. The news follows on the heels of the retailer’s announcement earlier this week that it is kicking off its “Black Friday Deals for Days” promotions on November 3.
Tom Ward, SVP of last mile, Walmart U.S., wrote in a company blog post that the retailer will be extending its delivery hours, increasing its delivery windows and adding more items to the list of what customers can have delivered from local stores.
Walmart will make deliveries until 10 p.m. local time from its stores to customers who place their same-day or next-day orders by 6 p.m. “We’re also allowing additional time for customers to amend their orders after it’s placed, so if you forget to add a can of pumpkin pie filling for your Thanksgiving meal or you’re in need of a last-minute hostess gift — you’ll have more time to add it to your cart,” wrote Mr. Ward.
The retailer is also adding more delivery windows through its third-party providers by enabling them to shop and deliver customers’ orders during the holiday season. Doing so, according to Mr. Ward, will open up slots in instances where existing delivery slots are booked. Customers will continue to pay standard delivery fees, with Walmart+ members getting unlimited free deliveries during the season. There is a fee for Express deliveries made within two hours.
Walmart is also expanding the numbers of items that customers can have delivered same-day from local stores and has added oversized items such as bicycles, big screen televisions and artificial Christmas trees to the list.
The retailer is also increasing the number of stores that offer delivery and pickup of alcoholic beverages. The chain said 1,500 stores will offer delivery and 3,000 have pickup.
Walmart is bringing back its “Black Friday Deals for Days” promotion, with Walmart+ members getting a four-hour head start on purchasing sales items online. The promotion will roll out in three sales events throughout November.
“Our customers count on us to deliver an amazing Black Friday experience with the best prices year after year, and this year we’re making it even bigger and better with more ways to shop and more of every item,” said Scott McCall, EVP and chief merchandising officer for Walmart U.S.
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Do you expect most retailers to follow a similar holiday playbook to Walmart with extended sales promotions and added delivery and pickup options? Which factor — staffing, supply chain, etc. — do you see as particularly critical to Walmart’s sales objectives for the holiday season?
Poll
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Walmart is playing total offensive for the holiday season, and other retailers are hot on their heels. With these latest announcements, Walmart is pulling out all the stops to ensure they capture as much of the holiday season business as they can. They are also in one of the best inventory positions of any retailer. Combine that with their logistical capabilities that are among the very best. The key will be inventory and supply chain, and on this front Walmart will be hard to beat.
I do not expect most retailers to follow the Walmart holiday playbook because not everyone has Walmart’s buying power, resources, and products. Many retailers are facing empty shelves and labor shortages. These challenges don’t seem to touch the retail behemoths of the world.
So no, I do not expect other retailers to follow suit because they just can’t.
Walmart is raising the bar on almost everything – promotions, flexible ordering, fast and convenient delivery and product assortments. The supply chain is the biggest factor that everything during the holiday season is contingent upon for success. The holiday season winners will be the retailers that overcome supply chain challenges the best.
These are all incredible perks for Walmart and Walmart+ shoppers, but staffing and supply chain challenges could cause great disappointment if the brand can’t uphold these promises. I hope these initiatives can for sure be achieved without exacerbating all the issues the retail industry is already facing.
Walmart has exposed its battle plan, and it is tough. This is a sound plan for the times. Bravo!
It will be hard for any other retailer to offer extended delivery on inventory that they don’t have on hand and by employees not on the payroll. Sounds like Walmart has been laying the groundwork for this strategy for some time and now find themselves in the enviable position of actually being able to offer it and then execute. A lot of retailers will still be scrambling for product and people while Walmart delivers — delivers both product and on their brand promise.
With Christmas trees already selling out in stores, the holiday playbook seems to now mandate that holiday shopping begins October 1. That means we are spending 25 percent of our entire year focused on year-end holidays. This is madness.
And this plan will create a flow of customers who perhaps rarely plan to shop Walmart. Welcome to all these new patrons!
I expect we will see a lot of noise in the market this year – deals and deliveries. My caution to retailers is that this will also make it quite easy to give up money you shouldn’t. The critical question is whether your deals matter and will lead to higher profits.
Walmart is being smart. They know there will be a holiday crunch due to staff shortages, both internally and at carriers. Starting promotions early means they can start delivering holiday orders early, and spread the load across a longer period of time to help stave off capacity issues. It’s a good play and one that other retailers should follow.
E-commerce has opened Pandora’s box. Customers are now less willing to accept constraints on their shopping options. Endless aisles, 24/7 shopping, products delivered whenever and however you want, etc. What Walmart is doing is a good next step in that progression. Remember when they were upset that information about their Black Friday sales leaked out before Black Friday? Look how far we have come…
Yes, everyone is going to try to capture as many sales as early as possible. As to which factor(s) are critical I’d say that, functionally, staffing is part of the supply chain. It doesn’t do you any good to get inventory to a warehouse or store if there isn’t enough staff to get it to a shelf. And it doesn’t help to have full staffing if there is no product.
Black Friday has become just another promotion as it extends outside the original idea of a one day sale. Is Walmart making a land grab here? When a lot of retailers are more worried about having inventory to sell, they are tightening their grip by bigger promotions over a longer period with even more delivery options.
The idea that people need same-day delivery on considered purchases such as bicycles and big screen TV’s is amazing, not to mention Christmas trees. Do they expect that some people missed the fact that it was Christmas?
Gotta love the assertiveness of Walmart’s announced holiday season plan. The shopper benefits should be very meaningful to the most loyal shoppers, but for the rest, getting on board might seem a little daunting.
It’s a mean feat to deliver a missing recipe ingredient in two hours on Thanksgiving eve. Worth bragging about, but useful to only a tiny fraction of shoppers, I imagine. That’s a good thing — short-staffed Walmart stores could be overwhelmed if this service proves TOO popular.
While I like most about Deals for Days is the way it blunts the Black Friday/Cyber Monday peak by spreading out the demand with rolling deals. Less hysteria. Smoother fulfillment. Sufficient quantities on hand of its “digital doorbusters.”
Shrewdly, the wider promotion period will span several pay cycles for its customers. My guess is Walmart will win this game of “capture the cash.”
Walmart is trying to get a head start and grab wallet share before the holidays. Given the news on supply chain issues, it is trying to pull in customers who have the disposable income to shop early to avoid disappointments, and Walmart has the inventory and supply chain expertise to do it now. Not sure other retailers can copy this one without careful consideration to not make matters worse for them.