Walmart Buys Four Delivery Companies To Expand Online Grocery Operations
Walmart has acquired four additional companies to boost its grocery delivery options: Point Pickup, Skipcart, AxleHire and Roadie. The deals will help Walmart double its number of locations offering grocery delivery to 1,600 by the end of 2019. Financial terms of the acquisitions were not disclosed.
The newly acquired companies will join third-party services such as Postmates and DoorDash to help the retail giant expand its grocery delivery options. Walmart complements this delivery network with grocery pickup at more than 2,000 locations.
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This rapid expansion of food delivery capabilities positions Walmart to compete with Amazon’s plans for delivery through Whole Foods locations and Kroger’s in-house Kroger ship service. Walmart’s latest hiring spree also could help sharpen its edge: the retailer plans to bring on 2,000 technology experts this year to support its efforts both in stores and online, according to Fortune.
The hiring binge will include data scientists, software engineers, designers and others to staff nine offices from Silicon Valley to Bangalore, according to Jeremy King, CTO at Walmart. Walmart’s retail technology group currently has about 7,500 employees, which includes 1,700 hired in 2018.
Walmart grocery delivery uses personal shoppers to pick items, empowering them with digital tools that help them map optimal routes through the aisles as they pull together each order. The retail giant has also made investments in automated technologies for both the picking process and last-mile delivery.