Amazon’s fast pace of growth online has compelled more and more retailers to stay close, or get left behind.  Even the largest ones have taken note at Amazon’s position strategy to use Same-Day Delivery to capture and turn more shoppers toward buying from them online.  Best Buy did earlier this year; now, the world’s retail leader Wal-Mart has announced it is going to do the same.

Wal-Mart has officially announced that it is rolling out several same-day grocery delivery pilot programs, starting in Denver and another unidentified market this month.  It has partner with ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft to perform the actual deliveries.  The retailer  has been testing same-day grocery delivery in San Jose.  The Walmart, as well as the Sam’s Club pilot program, will cost customers a $7-$10 delivery fee, which can be purchased once they choose “same-day delivery” at online checkout.

The article mentioned that Wal-Mart also partnered with start-up delivery company Deliv to pilot a same-day delivery program at several Miami Sam’s Club stores. Deliv founder and CEO Daphne Carmeli commented in the report, “We got a call from Walmart and are pretty excited to be working with the biggest retailer in the world.  It’s amazing the effect the ‘A-word,’ Amazon, is having on the e-commerce landscape.  They have created a customer expectation of same-day delivery. It’s the new standard. If you’re selling physical goods to customers you’ve got to figure out a way to get them to customers as quickly as possible.”

Although in a different industry, a few months ago another major retailer began testing its’ own same-day delivery.  Best Buy announced in April it was launching a pilot program for the service in 13 more major metropolitan markets throughout the US.  Last year, Best Buy started testing the service in San Francisco, Washington DC and New York.  The consumer electronics industry is forecasted to go up to over $85 billion this year in US sales, and Best Buy is positioning itself to capture the majority of those sales, not Amazon.  Wal-Mart has tapped into same-day delivery so it can keep its’ physical store leverage and do the same–just with groceries.  More same-day for general merchandise may be to come.

Best Buy and Wal-Mart have Deliv in common.  The crowdsource-based delivery company partnered with Best Buy, and now Sam’s Club since March.  Best Buy has over 400 stores nationwide, which makes it easy to fulfill online orders via store locations instead of traditional warehousing.  Wal-Mart, on the other hand, has over 3,400 stores in the US–and that’s just Supercenters.  With this type of reach and volume that the retail leader has, it won’t be difficult to create a successful same-day delivery program.  It will only be a matter of can Lyft and Uber literally deliver.

A Same-Day Courier like 1-800 Courier is a delivery provider with a national footprint that utilizes a courier-based approach, servicing over 1,500 companies.  The Denver Courier has the courier expertise and technology to effectively establish a variety of same-day solutions, tailored specifically to the web-based or brick-and-mortar retailer.  1-800 Courier is a trusted on-stop source and leader for same-day delivery that retailers can turn to as online business begins to substantially rise in the years to come.

Reference: 6.3.16, www.retailingtoday.com,Dan Bethiaume, Wal-Mart taking on Amazon with same-day delivery pilot