Whether you love or loathe Walmart, the retail juggernaut may soon be delivering your stuff, especially if you shop at Home Depot.
The retailer’s new white-label Walmart GoLocal service, announced at the end of August, expands its delivery abilities far beyond its own goods. Any merchants willing to sign on the dotted line, from national retailers to local businesses, will be able to use Walmart’s resources to speed their stuff to your door. And now there’s news that Walmart has struck a major deal with Home Depot to “expand same-day and next-day delivery capabilities for home improvement customers in the U.S.”
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Home Depot becomes the first major retailer to use Walmart’s GoLocal, with deliveries starting in the next few weeks. The goal is to expand the service throughout the country by the end of the year. Home Depot deliveries through GoLocal will focus on smaller items that can fit in a car, the companies say.
GoLocal will include more-innovative delivery methods, including drones and autonomous vehicles, as well as Walmart’s Spark Driver service, which allows gig workers to set their own schedules and accept jobs via an app, much like Instacart, DoorDash, or Uber. The flexibility will allow Walmart to deliver even larger or more complex orders, the retailer says.
Of course, Walmart getting into the delivery game puts pressure on ecommerce juggernaut Amazon as well as shipping companies including FedEx and UPS. It could also chip away at business going to the U.S. Postal Service, which struggled with unprecedented shipping delays last holiday season and has already announced deliveries will become slower and more expensive, starting immediately.
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