Dive Brief:
- Walmart's Spark Driver platform tripled the number of pickup points it launched in fiscal year 2023 compared to the year prior, demonstrating the retail giant's continued efforts to bolster its last mile delivery services.
- The Spark Driver platform now covers 15,000 pickup points, which include Walmart store locations and Walmart GoLocal client retail locations it delivers from, according to data provided by the company.
- With this growing reach, drivers for the crowdsourced delivery provider can now reach 84% of U.S. households, according to Walmart.
Dive Insight:
The Spark Driver platform is Walmart's largest delivery provider, with thousands of independent contractors delivering orders for the retailer's customers each day. Its capabilities are a big reason behind 248 million deliveries being fulfilled from Walmart stores for fiscal year 2023, which ended Jan. 31.
Expanded delivery coverage through the platform will also aid efforts to expand the client base of Walmart GoLocal, the retailer's white-label service for same-day and next-day local deliveries that use Spark Driver contractors.
"We've scaled our [Spark Driver] network pretty aggressively, so we feel really good about where our coverage is," Harsit Patel, former vice president and general manager of Walmart GoLocal, told Supply Chain Dive in September. "A lot of times, clients have come to us because they have stores or a location that no other provider in the market will cover, and we've been able to cover those right off the bat."
The Spark Driver platform's growth helped Walmart GoLocal surpass 3.5 million deliveries made in fiscal year 2023. It will also aid the delivery service with any increase in demand it sees from being available on Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Walmart GoLocal will be available through Salesforce AppExchange in the spring, a Walmart executive said in January.
The Spark Driver platform also tripled its driver growth in fiscal year 2023, according to Walmart. Consistent volume from stores and Walmart GoLocal has been touted as a draw for potential drivers.
"Thanks to this, our customers can rely on us to save them time with convenient pickup and delivery with no added markup on items, making Walmart a destination for customers and drivers alike," Nav Chadha, vice president, On Demand Delivery, Walmart U.S., said in a post on Walmart's website in August.
