Walmart pilots tie-up with Uber to deliver online grocery orders in US

The Asda owner’s chief executive, Doug McMillon, revealed news of the trial at Walmart’s AGM in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Friday.

The US retail giant said it had seen “rapid expansion” of online grocery Pickup – known as click and collect in the UK – and said trials with Uber and similar services Lyft and Deliv would start “within the next two weeks.”

Uber will help deliver goods to customers in Phoenix, while Lyft will fulfil some of Walmart’s online grocery orders in Denver.

Customers in those cities will be able to select a delivery window online as normal, but Walmart staff may request a driver from one of the companies to collect the customer’s order from a store and deliver it to their home.

Shoppers will pay the usual delivery charge of between $7 and $10, making no payment to the driver.

The pilot comes three months after Walmart-owned Sam’s Club started a similar pilot with Deliv for Miami-based members ordering groceries or general merchandise.

Speaking at the AGM, McMillon said: “We’re excited to announce that we’re working with Uber and other innovative partners to test deliveries to customers from our stores and Clubs.”

Walmart Global Ecommerce chief operating officer Michael Bender added: “We’re thrilled about the possibility of delivering new convenient options to our customers and about working with some transformative companies in this test.

“We’ll start small and let our customers guide us, but testing new things like last-mile delivery allows us to better evaluate the various ways we can best serve our customers how, when and where they need us.”