In an article on WalMart’s challenges in competing with Amazon.com, Advertising Age reports that the Postal Service is currently working with WalMart to deliver on-line purchases in rural areas. The pilot program fills orders to rural Nevada from the stock of a Nevada Walmart with the Postal Service performing the delivery.
The pilot program illustrates one way that WalMart is trying to integrate its brick-and-mortar and Internet based sales strategy. The pilot program is designed to serve rural customers that find WalMart’s in-store pick-up option inconvenient because the store is 20 or more miles from where they live. For these customers, WalMart fills the order at a Walmart store close to the customer and the Postal Service delivers the shipment. Depending on how close the WalMart store is to processing plant serving the rural customer, picking inventory from a retail store can reduce delivery time by one to three days over what Amazon can do from its warehouses.
More information on the program will likely become available only when Walmart expands the program beyond the test site. Rates and other particulars will be confidential, as the service provided to WalMart will reflect prices and service conditions for a parcel service not regulated by the Postal Regulatory Commision.
