Walmart deliver Groceries via Uber, Lyft

An Uber or Lyft driver could be delivering your groceries to you, if you live in the US of A and shop at Walmart’s online store. The world’s largest retailer announced that it will be partnering with the ride-hailing services for last-mile delivery of groceries ordered online.

So, when a customer places a grocery order, the employee at the store will assemble the items and order an Uber or Lyft car; the driver will then deliver the order to the customer’s doorstep. The cost of delivery will be between US$7-10 and customers pay for it during purchase, so there will be no additional transaction with the driver.

More than half of Walmart’s revenue comes from grocery sales, and leveraging on the ready fleet of Uber/Lyft drivers means that Walmart do not have to have to maintain its own system for last-mile deliveries. Delivery costs can be kept to a minimum while consumer convenience is assured.

Trials are expected to begin in the next few weeks, with Lyft in Denver and Uber in Phoenix. According to information from 1010Data, almost 13% of Walmart users in North America and 18% of shoppers specifically in Denver and Phoenix use Lyft/Uber. The familiarity of consumers with the new delivery option could make or break this new initiative. Indeed it is smart of Walmart to take advantage of the fast-growing transportation service, but it is an idea that rivals could very easily adopt too. About 16.2% of Target shoppers in the country use Lyft/Uber, and 19.7% of Target's patrons from Denver and Phoenix are users. The numbers are even higher for Amazon - 17.8% of its shoppers are Lyft/Uber users, and 20.7% of their shoppers in Denver and Phoenix use either one of these ride-hailing services. 

Of course Amazon is also working on the incredibly cool drone delivery service (a nifty flying robot that drops off a bottle of milk? Hell ya!) but it will be some years before the drones are ready for the task and the authorities still need to figure out whether a separate air zone should be allocated for small flying machines.

Meanwhile, Uber is taking on courier services by launching UberRush, an on-demand deliver service, only a few days ago. With a few lines of code, entrepreneurs and businesses can add UberRush as a delivery option for whatever products they sell. Will Uber and other similar companies now become a threat to conventional postal and courier systems? Will we see FedEx and UPS drivers stand off again Uber drivers, like how taxi drivers have been doing in protest of Uber threatening their livelihood? What was it that Darwin is often misquoted as saying…”It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”