Walmart has long been accused of driving mom and pop stores out of business — now they want to help them out.
The company partnered with Adobe to offer software to small businesses that allows customers to order online and pick up at the store.
Walmart is the OG of curbside pickup
The firm launched its Site to Store service in 2007, becoming one of the 1st omnichannel retailers.
Fast forward to today:
- Walmart’s online sales jumped 79% in its last fiscal year, with pickup and delivery up over 100%
- “Buy online, order in store” grew from 7% to 22% of consumer order fulfillment since 2018
- Top 1000 retail chains offering curbside pickup rocketed from 6.6% to 50.7% since early 2020
The strategy is reminiscent of Amazon’s approach with AWS
Amazon launched Amazon Web Services (now a $13.5B business) after being their own 1st and best customer.
- A big difference is that Amazon doesn’t compete directly with most AWS customers.
After years of battling Walmart for customers, it’ll be interesting to see how many shop owners jump to support the retail behemoth itself.
