Dive Brief:
- FedEx Office, a subsidiary of FedEx, on Tuesday announced it will bring 500 new FedEx Office packing, shipping and printing locations to U.S. Walmart stores. At ShopTalk in Las Vegas the companies said a pilot program had successfully driven more traffic to the retailer while smoothing logistical problems.
- The companies piloted the effort in 47 Walmart stores in six states, and will expand in the next 24 months, according to a FedEx press release.
- Walgreens and Office Depot in recent years have made space for FedEx dropoff, pickup and packaging locations, and EBay works with FedEx Office for its seller "valet" services.
Dive Insight:
A FedEx Office partnership gives shoppers one more reason to go to a Walmart in addition to food concessions, check-cashing services and even legal services in some locations. It could also help the retail giant realize omnichannel ambitions.
Expect more from the tie-up, Charles Dimov, VP of marketing at OrderDynamics, told Retail Dive in an email. "With Fedex Office locations in-store, Walmart becomes even more of a destination for many needs, and impulse buys. The next possible step is the synergy of making both Fedex and Walmart stores as pickup points for in-store pickups," he said. “Again this caters to additional purchases, as 58% of pickups result in additional buys."
Both companies are grappling with the increasing dominance of Amazon. FedEx, which for years has dismissed the e-commerce giant’s moves to take over its own fulfillment, is starting to have reason to worry as Amazon moves ever closer to becoming a shipper in its own right. Meanwhile, Walmart has taken a decided pivot to revamp its in-store and online operations to fuel digital sales, and that is taking an ongoing shift in thinking and culture, experts say.
Walmart has clearly recognized that if it’s going to hold its own against Amazon, it needs to think less like an empire and more like a network.
— Doug Stephens (@RetailProphet) March 20, 2018
https://t.co/6AWZqfrplc#FutureOfRetail pic.twitter.com/8D41tqXLs3
"Walmart has clearly recognized that if it’s going to hold its own against Amazon, it needs to think less like an empire and more like a network," retail prophet Doug Stephens, author of Reengineering Retail: The Future of Selling in a Post-Digital World, tweeted on Tuesday.
