Starting this fall in the US, Walmart customers in select cities can choose to have their groceries delivered directly into their refrigerators when away from home. The InHome service will use Walmart vehicles and its own workers equipped with proprietary wearable cameras. Using undisclosed “smart entry technology,” Walmart employees will be able to enter homes to make deliveries, while customers will be able to control access and watch the deliveries remotely.
Walmart takes the order “from food aisle to fridge,” according to a statement issued by the company.
The InHome services will launch this fall and be available to over 1 million customers in three cities: Kansas City, Missouri; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Vero Beach, Florida. Delivery fees for the new service were not announced, nor were any details for how Walmart employees will gain entry into your home. Reuters notes that Amazon trialed a similar service in 2017 with August Home as a partner. It was disbanded a year later.
Walmart says that its employees will receive extensive training, in order to ensure they “treat customers’ homes with the same care and respect with which they treat a friend’s or family’s home.” They’ll also be trained on how to “organize the most efficient refrigerator.”
Later this year, customers will also be able to return items purchased on Walmart.com by leaving them on the counter for InHome delivery associates to collect.
”Now we can serve customers not just in the last mile, but in the last 15 feet,” said Walmart in a statement.
InHome will compete directly with Amazon’s Key home delivery service that can deliver your packages inside your home, garage, or the trunk of your car. Walmart has been waging an increasingly fierce battle with Amazon in the US. Most recently, Walmart launched a free one-day delivery service.