With the bulk of its customers worrying about inflation heading into the holidays, Walmart has debuted a trio of new services designed to help online shoppers save time.
The retailer will allow shoppers to skip checkout with a “Buy Now” button on most products, “allowing them to purchase items directly from item pages for even faster, easier shopping,” according to a Thursday (Oct. 27) news release sent to PYMNTS.
The retail giant is also promoting its virtual queuing experience, which keeps customers’ places in line for the highest-demand items during Black Friday sales as they continue shopping the Walmart site. The tool makes sure shoppers know when they’re in line, their estimated wait and how long they have to checkout to guarantee their purchase, the release stated.
“We’ll even hold their spot in multiple queues at once just in case they’re looking to purchase multiple different high-demand items,” according to the release.
Finally, customers now have the option to see the most viewed and purchased items in their search results, helping them find popular products before they go out of stock, the release stated.
Walmart said in the release that 78% of its customers report that inflation will have either “some” or “a great deal of” impact on their holiday shopping this year.
Earlier this week, PYMNTS noted many retailers — from major players like Walmart, Target and Amazon to smaller stores — are racing to sell to shoppers, who are growing more and more worried about their household budgets in the face of a recession.
Read more: Retailers Race to Respond as Consumers Recoil From Inflation
PYMNTS research found that 70 million United States consumers said they think a recession has already begun — while 89 million more said they’ve already been cutting back on expenses to get ready for a recession they believe will be impossible to avoid.
We’ve also found that consumers want an easier time making purchases online. Thirteen percent of consumers felt frustrated with the checkout process when purchasing from a merchant’s app or website, 16% when buying from a digital marketplace and, a whopping 38% when making purchases from a social media platform’s marketplace.
They should get a smoother experience with buy buttons. According to PYMNTS’ “2022 Buy Button Report,” this sort of feature — along with options like buy now, pay later — has helped American consumers spend 46% less time at checkout.
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