Marc Lore, president and CEO of Walmart eCommerce U.S., shared in a June 7 blog post that the company will launch a new service called InHome Delivery later this year.
The new service will allow online shoppers to have their groceries delivered even when they can’t be at home. InHome will be kicked off this fall for more than 1 million customers in three cities: Kansas City, Missouri; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Vero Beach, Florida.
To use the service, customers place a grocery order and then select InHome Delivery and a delivery day at checkout. A Walmart associate will pull the order and at the time of delivery, the associate will use smart entry technology and a proprietary, wearable camera to access the customer’s home, allowing customers to control access into their homes and giving them the ability to watch the deliveries remotely.
Lore said these associates, whose jobs are focused on this service, will go through an extensive training program that will prepare them to enter customers’ homes with the same care and respect with which they would treat a friend’s or family’s home as well as how to “select the freshest grocery items and organize the most efficient refrigerator.
“It’s also exciting how leveraging our stores and amazing associates for services like this opens up more possibilities in the future. For example, later this year, InHome will also accept returns for items purchased on Walmart.com—customers can just leave them on the counter and their InHome Delivery associate will return the items on their behalf,” Lore said.
Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart offers free pickup of online grocery orders as well as delivery. Lore noted that “we’re on track to offer Grocery Pickup from 3,100 stores and same-day Grocery Delivery from 1,600 stores by year-end.”
