Walmart Tests Same-Day Grocery Delivery In China

Walmart is piloting same-day grocery delivery in China via a new service called Walmart To Go.

According to a report in TechCrunch, customers in China can access the service via a mini-program within WeChat, which is the messaging app owned by China’s Tencent. Walmart partnered with WeChat earlier in 2018 to tap that market of consumers. TechCrunch noted that Walmart hasn’t made a formal announcement about the service as its tests it and gets feedback from customers. The trial is going on at its main Walmart WeChat mini-program, and shows up when customers select the store where the delivery service works. With the test, customers are able to make small orders on their mobile device and get delivery in as little time as an hour. According to the report, there are close to 8,000 SKUS for the service including fresh products, snacks, personal care items, and home care items. Customers who use Walmart’s Scan and Go for checkout can reorder those items through the test, noted TechCrunch. Walmart’s senior director of eCommerce in China, Ted Hopkins, confirmed the test, telling TechCrunch it has been testing it for about a week now.

In the summer Tencent announced a collaboration with Walmart China in which the two will focus on customer experiences, payments, precision marketing, and communications through WeChat. In addition, the collaboration seeks to provide Walmart’s Sam’s Club with a stronger membership program. This work comes after Walmart China had tested “smart stores” in Shenzhen with “Walmart Scan and Pay” — a Tencent mini program — in March. Through the system, customers were able to scan their purchases and pay with their phones. Since then, the program has been rolled out to stores in 28 cities. Earlier in the year, Walmart inked a deal with Tencent to use WeChat Pay, its popular payment app, in all of its stores in the western region of China.