Walmart debuts store-to-fridge fresh food delivery service


Walmart’s new service, InHome Delivery, delivers fresh groceries directly into refrigerators within shoppers’ homes and garages.
Customers place a grocery order online, select InHome Delivery and pick a delivery time. The homeowner gets an alert when the delivery person is near their house and is able to watch the delivery live or view it later. Walmart wrote on the InHome Delivery’s microsite, “You’ll be able to see the whole process, from the opening of your door, to the stocking of your fridge and every step in between, until our associate leaves and locks up.”
InHome Delivery Customer Watching Live Stream of Associate Stocking the Fridge – Source: Walmart
InHome works similarly to the Amazon Key delivery service. Among the differences:
- Amazon Key requires that homeowners purchase an indoor security camera and a compatible smart lock. Homeowners grant temporary access to delivery couriers, guests or non-Amazon services such as dry cleaners and dog walkers. Customers using Walmart’s InHome must have the company install a smart lock on the outside of their home or garage, and the device specifically supports the retailer’s delivery service. Walmart’s delivery people gain one-time access.
- Amazon Key couriers drop off the packages inside to avoid items getting stolen. Walmart InHome Delivery is tailored for fresh grocery items, with deliveries landing in the fridge.
- Couriers using Amazon Key’s system may be from third-party delivery services. Walmart InHome Delivery couriers are exclusively Walmart employees who are required to have worked at the local Walmart for at least a year to be eligible for the job, which becomes the employees’ main responsibility. In a blog entry, Marc Lore, president and CEO, Walmart e-commerce U.S., said the couriers “go through an extensive training program which prepares them to enter customers’ homes with the same care and respect with which they would treat a friend’s or family’s home — not to mention how to select the freshest grocery items and organize the most efficient refrigerator.”
Customers will eventually be able to leave items on the counter to be returned.
The service is being tested this fall in three cities: Kansas City, MO, Pittsburgh and Vero Beach, FL. Pricing will be provided closer to launch.
- We’re Taking Walmart Grocery Delivery One Step Further – Walmart
- InHome Delivery – Walmart
- Walmart is going to start delivering groceries inside shoppers’ homes – CNBC
- Walmart Wants to Put Groceries Into Your Fridge – The Wall Street Journal
- Walmart to launch in-home grocery delivery in three cities, starting this fall – TechCrunch
- How In-Home Delivery Works – Amazon.com
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: What do you think of the potential of Walmart’s InHome Delivery service? Do you see it giving Walmart an advantage over Amazon in their competition for the grocery home delivery market?
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32 Comments on "Walmart debuts store-to-fridge fresh food delivery service"
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Chief Amazement Officer, Shepard Presentations, LLC
I’ve been saying this for the last year … convenience is king! If the retailer (in this case Walmart) can get the food all the way to the fridge/freezer, the it’s that much more convenient for the customer. There is another level. At one point do the Walmart employees (or any other retailer’s employees) cook the food?!
Managing Partner, RSR Research
They call that Uber Eats! Or Door Dash.
Managing Partner, RSR Research
I can’t decide which has the most possibilities for disaster — in-home grocery delivery or drone delivery. I think both should be scrapped as concepts.
In the first dot-com boom a company (I think its name was Streamline) would put a fridge in shoppers garages and leave the groceries there. They failed. It was hard to make money. This seems like a challenge to profitability on a good day, and an opportunity for lawsuits on bad days.
This little war between Amazon and Walmart is starting to feel like the milk and bread wars of the 1950s … a race to the death.
Editor-in-Chief, RetailWire
We were Streamline customers back then and had an outdoor refrigerator on our screened-in porch. Loved the service, yet always wondered how they would financially account for the refrigerators. As it turned out, they didn’t. At least we got a free fridge out of the deal when all was said and done.
Managing Partner, RSR Research
They never took it back? That’s amazing.
Principal, Your Retail Authority, LLC
And Paula, is the Walmart customer really the right audience for this? Are they typically tech savvy therefore tech trusting? For high-end clientele somewhere who may already have servant(s) in the home, I can see this as having a niche. For Walmart? Maybe not so much. But that’s just my 2 cents. We shop at Walmart for a few things so don’t get me wrong. Just sayin’.
Principal, Retail Technology Group
The concept of delivery-to-fridge has limited potential. Some consumers will welcome it and some will never go for it. We are familiar with some service people, whom we use often, and who we would trust inside our home alone. It would take a long time for many consumers to feel so confident about an unknown delivery person.
Founder and CEO, CrunchGrowth Revenue Acceleration Agency
The obstacle has always been trust with these services. You can go back to the ’90s with a startup called Streamline, which provided the refrigerators and placed them in garages so they did not need to enter the house. It was never able to scale because of trust. Consumers don’t like having people they do not know walking around their property when they are not there. It is not about the delivery person doing something unethical at the time of delivery. It is about visually scanning the home for some future endeavor.
Regardless of the video security and smart locks, these services are still struggling. However, I do believe that Amazon will be able to penetrate this market faster and more securely than Walmart. Amazon has the trust of the consumer regardless of the third party delivery or direct employees. Customers trust Amazon to deliver their purchases above the USPS, Fedex and UPS.
Principal, Cathy Hotka & Associates
Delivery into the kitchen sounds downright perilous in some cases. Each one of us knows a house in the neighborhood that we wouldn’t enter on a bet. All the training in the world won’t prepare these couriers for some of the things they’ll see. My brother lives in a lovely neighborhood in a historical district, but his next door neighbor is a hoarder who owns a 6-foot python. In-fridge delivery sounds like the next step on the road to customer-centricity, but dangers lurk.
Strategy and Operations Executive
While these are right moves strategically for Walmart and Amazon, there are certain lines that we simply won’t cross. I am all for efficiency and helping to mitigate the last mile. However, there is no chance most people would allow this. If this helps to make the delivery process faster, a locker or storage outside of your residence solves the last step of the journey.
With that said, the home delivery segment has grown significantly in cosmopolitan cities, particularly NYC, where there is a thriving home delivery industry already. The home delivery grocery services will resonate in larger cities, especially where most folks are dependent on mass transit, and do not own cars.
Luxury apartments in NYC already a concierge like experience, and what Amazon and Walmart are offering is a natural extension to this.
President, Integrated Marketing Solutions
The race for the last mile has become one of feet and inches. The need for speed has become a race for offering the ultimate convenience. It almost seems like a game of innovation who can top who. While all delivery choices are nice, nothing beats reliability. Amazon Prime has missed my last 4 delivery dates — one by well over a week! I will take on-time delivery as promised over someone stocking my fridge.
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
As a consumer, I have to really trust someone to let them into my home, and that’s while I’m there. But to let random people into my house, cabinets and refrigerator when I’m not? No. Just NO.
Strategy and Operations Executive
Ditto!
Chief Strategy Officer, InReality
I’m with these guys. I live one mile from a Walmart in Atlanta and there’s not enough need in the world to drive me to let one of their employees into my home. I have no doubt that it would get cased for a home invasion. This is all about brand trust and that starts with current channel experiences — and it takes a lot of it to garner sharing the security code to your front door.
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
Can you imagine the safety checks Walmart will have to do on those employees? CIA background check worthy, that’s for sure!
Principal, What Brands Want, LLC
The Walmart program is either the key to unlocking the next great wave of e-commerce sales or it’s an unwelcome (home) invasion of privacy. Or, it’s both. For harried families who never have time for errands, this can be a game changer. For some, this is a waste and they would never have another pick out their produce and meat. Regardless this program doubles down on the Walmart strategy that the store — and now associates — are the secret weapon in the battle versus Amazon.
Chief Customer Officer, Incisiv
Early days. This service will have a very limited adoption since it requires installation of locks, etc. and that is a big ask in the name of convenience. I believe this is more of a PR exercise vs. revenue and business driver.
VP Product Strategy, Infor
Seems like they’ve considered lots of options and are really trying to set customers at ease, but all it takes is one bad headline and the brand is tarnished. I doubt this take hold long-term.
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
It sounds so right, but it FEELS so wrong. Nope! It’s not for me, and I dare say, many will echo my sentiment.
Founder | CEO, Female Brain Ai & Prefeye - Preference Science Technologies Inc.
Crazy times! Has Walmart lost its mind? Ok, maybe a few people out of millions have no issue with random people entering their home. The opportunity for misbehavior is rife. Crimes of opportunity. Good media PR sound bites, though.
Professor, International Business, Guizhou University of Finance & Economics; Executive Director, Global Commerce Education
This isn’t a matter of acceptance in 3 to 5 years. Something like this will take 10 to 15 years. It will largely be driven by younger people who accept system and technology. Today we are concerned about security of our home, but we can’t even comprehend what the security technology will be like in 15 years. Look at the speed of technology advancement in the last 15 years and now double that speed.
Combine this idea with the demonstration at the Samsung Experience where the technology monitors your refrigerator, including produce, determines what you use and need, orders automatically. Now add that you come home from work and the refrigerator is full and you don’t even have to think about anything.
Executive Director, Global Marketing, Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions
I have to believe this has very little to do with direct access to my refrigerator, and much more to do with brand awareness for a retailer obsessed with delivering ultimate convenience to consumers. I hope so anyway. As a result, I suspect this specific initiative will have limited success … unless of course they’ll clean the fridge while there (and throw away my week old leftovers). I can dream.
Editor-in-Chief, CPGmatters
So, grocery delivery to your fridge is the next step for in the ever-ending drive for the most convenience with online ordering and delivery. What’s next? The delivery person prepares a meal and washes the dishes? Can sleep-overs be far behind with pancakes for breakfast and taking out the trash?
Owner, Tony O's Supermarket and Catering
Thanks for throwing the obvious humor into this. Retail grocery is beyond insane, as consumers’ demands far exceed profitability for all who are involved. I do home catering, where I drop off the food and provide staff to monitor the party, which includes cleaning the kitchen, taking out trash, and helping the clients with anything reasonable to make the party perfect. We charge for this, but some folks appreciate the help to make it work for their guests — but nothing creepy going on, just sayin’.
Managing Partner, Advanced Simulations
I’m a big Walmart fan — but not this big. Can’t decide if it’s a little creepy or a lot creepy. But I’ll look differently at the Walmart team, later today when I go there, wondering who I’d let in my house.