In August 2021, Walmart, the nation’s largest retail chain introduced yet another service called GoLocal to increase its services offered to its customers across the nation. GoLocal has a white-label delivery focus to speed goods and items sourced locally not only from its stores but also from local stores and businesses in the neighborhood, both large and small.
Since its launch six months ago, its newest service by the big box retailer has been compared to others such as DoorDash and Instacart who also offer same day delivery. However, there is a big difference between the service offered by Walmart. GoLocal doesn’t have a platform for customers. Instead, it delivers orders that are made on apps or websites of its clients.
Harsit Patel, general manager of Walmart GoLocal told Supply Chain Dive that there was a big differentiator in their service and that they were “respectful of not disintermediating business-to-consumer relationships.”
Walmart is pursuing delivery partnerships with both small and large local brands. In October, GoLocal announced that The Home Depot was its first client and in December, Chico’s became its first fashion client. The big box retailer is also looking at partnerships with local businesses.
Patel also said that there had been a larger number of smaller businesses that had been left out of restaurant verticals. GoLocal was going to provide its services to any size of local business. Following this they would help these businesses to strengthen customer relationships. GoLocal would primarily work as the “white-label delivery provider for them.”
Patel explained how GoLocal worked. He said that retailers using the service provider notified the service when an order was made through its app or website and was ready to be delivered. They also mentioned the timeframe and other additional parameters.
Patel also said that GoLocal could deliver items as fast as 15 minutes. He said that the service mainly catered to same day service as clients preferred warehouse deliveries for next day or two-day deliveries. GoLocal from Walmart can be considered more as a last mile service and a same day delivery service than a regular delivery service.
