To Improve Online Ordering, Walmart Tests "Dark Stores"

Walmart has started testing "dark stores", which are regular store buildings, but they’re not open to the public. Instead, they’re only used to pack and ship online orders.

Right now, Walmart is testing this idea in Dallas. Another location is expected to open soon in Bentonville, Arkansas, which is also the company’s hometown. These dark stores will stock some of Walmart’s best-selling items.

Even though these places look like normal Walmart stores from the outside, you can’t go in and shop. They’re only for online order fulfillment.

As per a Walmart spokesperson, the firm is constantly looking for methods to help patrons better, regardless of whether shoppers favor shopping online or in-store. This is an effort to make the shopping process speedy and more comfortable.

Dark stores help Walmart process and deliver online orders faster. The company has already been using its physical stores and new tech, like drones, to improve delivery services.

This new strategy seems to be working. In the first quarter of the year, Walmart's U.S. e-commerce business made a profit for the first time, with a 21% increase in online sales. CFO John David Rainey called it an “important milestone.”

Walmart’s cost of delivery has also gone down, thanks to more efficient delivery routes and shoppers choosing paid options for faster service. The company says it can now offer delivery to 95% of Americans within three hours. In fact, the number of orders delivered in under three hours jumped 91% compared to the same time last year.

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