Walmart Building ‘Systemic Change’ to Supply Chain
Walmart’s burgeoning Spark delivery network continues to expand rapidly. The numbers of third-party drivers using the service tripled from June 2022 to June 2023, covering 84 percent of U.S. households with 17,000 pick-up points.
But a new report suggests that Walmart is having trouble efficiently fulfilling the influx of orders. According to Insider, wait times have become an issue for delivery drivers. One driver told the outlet that he had to wait in a Walmart parking lot for the better part of an hour for a store employee to bring orders out to his car.
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Four contract Spark drivers told Insider that because of the uncertainty around wait times, it’s hard for them to know which orders are worth taking. Walmart said that the report, and examples offered, don’t represent most Spark-fulfilled orders.
“Orders are typically dispensed in 10 minutes or less. We are focused on maximizing drivers’ earnings opportunities, so we consider the time it takes to dispense orders when determining earnings for each trip,” a Walmart spokesperson told Sourcing Journal. “We’re constantly adding new features to make the pick-up process more efficient and encourage drivers to continue sharing their feedback with us.”
Walmart said it gives drivers visibility through an order status tracker, and employs technology that can help drivers optimize their store arrival time. It also continuously refines the order staging and dispensing process, it added.
When a Spark driver accepts an order, a deadline to report to their local Walmart flashes on the Spark app, which often hovers around 10 minutes. Delivery orders appear once an hour for drivers, so if a store employee takes too long, the driver risks being out delivering an order when the next hourly drop happens.
The retail giant appears to be developing the Spark Driver app with driver pain points in mind. In June, when the Spark program reached its five-year mark, Nav Chadha, vice president, on-demand delivery at Walmart, said recent program upgrades were a “direct response to driver feedback.”
For example, the order status tracker also includes trip and post-trip information, which can help drivers track their earnings progress and incentives, Chadha said.
“We’ve improved the app and earnings screens to increase transparency and give drivers additional visibility into the status of their earnings on a weekly, daily and trip level,” Chadham said. “We’re also deploying in-app features to mitigate the potential for fraudulent use of the platform. Drivers receive random checks that prompt them to verify their identity or device.”
The company aims to grow the delivery network. At the Goldman Sachs retail conference last month, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said the retailer wants to give store associates more delivery opportunities.
“[As] the last mile delivery network gets built out, we’ll own more vehicles. We’ll have associates doing more deliveries,” McMillon said. “Right now, the number of associate deliveries is relatively small—very small compared to what happens with independent contractors on various platforms, including the Spark platform…which is the biggest portion of our delivery business in the U.S. at the moment.”
The retail giant has been busy expanding its delivery capabilities beyond Spark, recently establishing late-night Express Delivery until 10 p.m., on orders placed by 9:30 p.m. As part of the extension, Walmart now offers delivery on more than 200,000 items from more than 4,000 U.S. stores within as little as 30 minutes.
Customers who choose the late-night option can use the new Live Shopper feature to text a personal shopper in real time and discuss substitutions or add items last minute.
As it focuses on delivery, Walmart named Shipt veteran Rina Hurst as vice president of its white-label delivery service platform, Walmart GoLocal. GoLocal is a part of the Spark delivery network, but is used to power last-mile delivery at third-party retailers such as The Home Depot and Chico’s FAS.
Hurst, who served as chief business officer at the Target-owned delivery company, will be responsible for the strategic direction, operations and general management of Walmart GoLocal as it continues to scale and recruit more retailers.
“When we can have a last-mile order that’s bigger or more orders—a denser fashion, everybody wins,” said McMillon during the Goldman event. “And we’re able to help other retailers, large and small, participate in that systemic change to the supply chain that we’re building out.”
