Dive Brief:
- Walmart GoLocal has surpassed its year-end projection to deliver from 5,000 retail and business locations, Harsit Patel, vice president and general manager of GoLocal, said in an interview Wednesday. The white-label delivery service reached that number “about a few weeks ago.”
- "We are way ahead of our targets that we have established for ourselves in year one," Patel said of GoLocal, Walmart’s same-day and next-day local delivery provider, which launched in August 2021. "What we're looking to do is double down on this core delivery-as-a-service business in year two."
- Despite declining volumes among the major carriers, Patel said high consumer interest in local deliveries will help drive GoLocal’s expansion. "There's still persistent demand there and based on what we can tell, that segment continues to grow."
Dive Insight:
GoLocal, which already surpassed 1 million deliveries, has built a diverse client base, including retail giants like The Home Depot and food delivery platforms such as Local Express. Patel said a key selling point to businesses in year one has been the maturity and stability Walmart offers as a company as opposed to other on-demand delivery providers.
"We're not going to constantly want to renegotiate rates, or we're not going to have constantly changing personnel, and we can be able to provide you that consistent experience and create more of a trusted, reliable experience for clients they can bank on," Patel said.
GoLocal's coverage area is also a strength, Patel added, as it is tied closely to Walmart’s retail footprint — 90% of the U.S. population is within a 10-mile radius of a Walmart store. GoLocal, which uses drivers on Walmart's Spark Driver platform, has seen businesses come to them looking for service at locations "no other provider in the market will cover," he added.
To stay competitive in the rapid delivery sector, GoLocal will continue to go after category leaders, particularly in the verticals in which it has already carved out a strong client base for, according to Patel. This will help the service build delivery route density and allow it to reduce per-shipment costs.
GoLocal plans to roll out additional offerings focused on "democratizing access to this local e-commerce type of setup to a variety of players in the market." Patel said further details on that front will be revealed later.
“[We’ll] continue to double down on the core that we’ve built, continue to expand this delivery-as-a-service business and grow it very aggressively, and then also introduce additional extensions in the market that I’m sure we’ll share over time as we scale those,” he said.
