Walmart boosts digital shopping preparations in anticipation of upcoming festive seasons.
Walmart Streamlines Online Shopping Ahead of Holiday Season
In an effort to provide a seamless and more personalized online shopping experience for customers, Walmart has unveiled several new enhancements this holiday season.
The retail giant will introduce a virtual queue, allowing shoppers to continue browsing while waiting for high-demand products. Additionally, Walmart has expanded its augmented reality "View in Your Home" feature, added a green tag to mark sale items, and provided a "buy now" button for faster purchases.
Nearly 80% of customers surveyed by Walmart said that inflation could impact their holiday shopping, signifying a need for retailers to offer savings alongside convenience.
"Every improvement to the site experience helps us create a faster, more engaging, and more personalized experience for our customers," said Brock McKeel, senior vice president of site experience for Walmart e-commerce.
Walmart's digital upgrades are part of a broader strategy to improve its online capabilities. In September, the company released a "Choose Your Own Model" option for apparel shoppers, enabling them to see how clothing looks on models of their same ethnicity or body type. The retailer also launched a new virtual-try-on feature for women's apparel and expanded its Spanish language search.
The heightened emphasis on online shopping may alleviate some stress for in-store employees during the holiday season. Walmart plans to hire only 40,000 employees this year, a substantial decrease from the 150,000 it hired last season.
Apart from focusing on online shopping, Walmart has experimented with shoppable content in the grocery space. Readers from sites like Tasty and Allrecipes can now shop for ingredients directly from Walmart.
Walmart has already started offering early deals and discounts, holding its "Rollbacks and More" October deals event from Oct. 10-13. It also announced an early multi-week Black Friday sale that will commence on Nov. 7, competing with Amazon and Target's early savings days.
Several strategies employed by Walmart aim to provide a personalized shopping experience and offer savings to attract and retain customers. The company uses customer data to offer tailored product recommendations, dynamic content, and price discounts. It also streamlines the checkout process and expands its eCommerce offerings to cater to a wider range of customer needs.
- Walmart's senior vice president of site experience, Brock McKeel, stated, "Every improvement to the site experience helps us create a faster, more engaging, and more personalized experience for our customers."
- In September, Walmart launched a "Choose Your Own Model" option for apparel shoppers, enabling them to see how clothing looks on models of their same ethnicity or body type.
- Walmart has experimented with shoppable content in the grocery space, allowing readers from sites like Tasty and Allrecipes to shop for ingredients directly from Walmart.
- The retail giant is using customer data to offer tailored product recommendations, dynamic content, and price discounts as part of its strategy to provide a personalized shopping experience and attract customers.
- To cater to a wider range of customer needs, Walmart is streamlining its checkout process and expanding its eCommerce offerings, such as the augmented reality "View in Your Home" feature and the addition of a green tag to mark sale items.
