Walmart has always been a shopping destination that meets your needs, not one that you love going to.
The chain's stores are basic, functional, and well-stocked, and that's generally enough for its customers. When you fill your cart at Walmart (WMT) -), you want good prices for what you need.
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This isn't Target (TGT) -) which has become sort of the new mall. People visit Target just to walk around, maybe get a coffee or a snack at Starbucks, and check out the merchandise.
Not at Walmart: You don't visit that chain as a diversion or for entertainment. And that's something Walmart actually has a plan to change by borrowing a people feature from Costco (COST) -) that helps make its warehouses fun shopping destinations for its members.
Image source: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Walmart Tries to Make Shopping Fun
It generally costs retailers more to deliver online orders than to serve shoppers in their stores. That's true even for curbside-pickup orders, which staff must take off shelves and then bring to customers.
That makes it essential that a retailer with a massive brick-and-mortar presence like Walmart get shoppers to visit its physical locations. To do that, Walmart is borrowing a page from one of its chief rivals.
Walmart has begun handing out free samples in its stores, according to Parade.
The effort is part of a larger plan by the company to leverage its stores to build a deeper connection with its customers.
"Offering product samples to customers as they walk through the store [is] a proven part of the shopper marketing playbook," Walmart said in a news release. "While demos are not new to Walmart, we’re now taking what customers already know and love even further. Walmart Connect is bringing these experiences in-house and scaling them across the U.S."
A pilot for the program ran in 25 stores in April and has been expanded to 120 stores, which offered samples Friday through Sunday. The chain now plans to expand the program to 1,000 locations. At the end of fiscal 2023 in January, Walmart U.S. operated nearly 4,700 of its flagship stores and nearly 600 Sam's Club membership stores.
"Part of our test is how to enhance the omnichannel experience by bridging the physical back to digital," the company said. "For example, by pairing a demo cart with QR codes that link back to a curated Walmart.com landing page so customers can find inspiration and shop their list all in one spot."
Brick-and-Mortar Still Key for Walmart
Walmart has been growing its digital business and e-commerce sales were up 27% in the most-recent quarter (driven by pickup and delivery). It has also seen growth in another key area.
"We continue to gain market share in the grocery category, including with higher income and younger shoppers, and we saw good growth in membership income in both businesses," Chief Executive Doug McMillon said during the chain's first-quarter-earnings call.
Sampling may help increase those sales and give customers another reason to visit the chain's stores. McMillon also delivered some mixed news to American customers.
"In Walmart U.S., general merchandise costs are now lower than a year ago, which is great, but they're still higher than two years ago on like items," he said. "In the dry grocery and consumables categories like paper goods, we continue to see high-single-digit to low-double-digit cost inflation."
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