This October, Walmart launched its Pickup Grocery service which is a “free service, allows customers to place their orders online any time from two hours to three weeks in advance.” (Walmart’s Drive-Through Grocery Concept Is A Head Scratcher)

As it was commented on Forbes, this service may attract some commuters who have a car and happen to pass through the store, but this service won’t work for those average homemakers and shoppers.  They may enjoy the shopping experience and may live too close to the shop to drive a car. Besides, daily food like meats and vegetables are perishable, and most people will prefer pick up their own on the site.

Nonetheless, every cloud has a silver lining. Walmart is racking its brain to create new things to enlarge its consumer segment, while keeping its main strategy as providing low cost and a broad range of goods, called leadership strategy based on Porter’s generic strategies. Doubtlessly, this innovation provides great service for potential consumer groups, including business commuters who own a car. Besides, as Carol Spieckerman, CEO of new market builders, said: “Shopping eats up time and can be a major inconvenience for parents with small children and the elderly and infirm.”  Therefore, for these people, the drive-through service can be a pain-reliever.(Walmart’s Drive-Through Grocery Concept Is A Head Scratcher)

On the other hand, for others who love online shopping, this  service can be a gain creator. They can compare and contrast a variety of good while sitting comfortably at home instead of rushing in the market. By this way, Walmart intrigues its consumer to its digital platform and familiarize them with how this works.  The company can therefore “gather more information on its customers’ searching and shopping habits as they place orders online.”(Walmart’s Drive-Through Grocery Concept Is A Head Scratcher)

Consumers normally buy products to get the job done, and the company’s job is to find out this ”job to be done”. In this case, Walmart successfully provide considerate services for busy business people, for parents with small children and the elderly and infirm. This innovation add a large part in its value proposition canvas by enlarging its products & services and its customer segment, and thereby will increase its sale volume. More importantly,  another “ulterior motive” behind this maybe a shift to online shopping. The next possible move of Walmart maybe to provide door-to-door service globally (in fact, it has now, but only free in Canada), and there is high chance that it can be to be the first biggest supermarket that provide online goods delivery worldwide, just like Amazon do in goods. (Walmart’s Drive-Through Grocery Concept Is A Head Scratcher)

References:

Geroge Anderson (October02,2014) Walmart’s Drive-Through Grocery Concept Is A Head Scratcher [online]. Available from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/retailwire/2014/10/02/walmarts-drive-through-grocery-concept-is-a-head-scratcher/   [Accessed 05 October 2014]