Walmart has hit a major milestone with its GoLocal white-label delivery-as-a-service business that launched in August of 2021.
First covered by Store Brands’ sister publication Progressive Grocer, the retailer has reached 1 million deliveries through the service that provides local businesses including small and medium-sized grocery stores with goods. Categories covered by the service now span clothing and apparel, automotive, grocery and alcohol, restaurants, consumer electronics, hardware and DIY, floral, warehousing and fulfillment, and delivery orchestration.
Since its inception, Walmart GoLocal has scaled its platform to serve clients at thousands of pickup locations and deliver products in as quickly as 30 minutes. The grocer is also on track to reach 5,000 locations by the end of 2021.
“We saw an opportunity to serve retailers who could benefit from Walmart’s scale, delivery infrastructure and world-class operations,” wrote Harsit Patel, VP and general manager of Walmart GoLocal, in a company blog post. “Since then, Walmart GoLocal has been focused on helping our clients reach their customers through local delivery — whether they are a large enterprise looking to find efficiencies, improve coverage and lower costs for delivery or a small business seeking to build out and scale their delivery infrastructure for the first time.”
Walmart says that GoLocal has been a lucrative alternative revenue stream for the retailer as it leverages Walmart’s investments in pickup/delivery into third-party sales opportunities. The company recently bolstered its delivery fleet with 4,500 electric vehicles, as well as its supply chain with the opening of a second consolidation center.
“We’re expanding our other revenue streams, including our white-label delivery service, Walmart GoLocal,” Walmart Chief Merchandising Officer Charles Redfield told Progressive Grocer earlier this year. “With clients such as The Home Depot, Chico’s FAS and Cognetry Labs, Walmart is leveraging its capacity and capabilities to help businesses of all sizes deliver products to customers across the country at an affordable price.”
The Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant operates more than 10,500 stores and numerous e-commerce websites under 46 banners in 24 countries.