Knock, knock...Who's there? It's Walmart.

Walmart has made a big splash with its in-home grocery delivery now opening up in 3 cities.

At this point, I think we are talking about an early-adopter type service not a mass-market service.  Ultimately, Walmart will have an issue because if Google (Nest) or Amazon (Ring) control many of the consumer locks in future, do you think they will let in Walmart?

Would you buy a Walmart lock to get groceries delivered while you are away from your home?

It's an intriguing concept and I think Walmart is investing slightly ahead of trend here on purpose to then build up the ecosystem around the idea to make it more palatable to the mass-market in the future.  They seem to be admitting this is for early adopters.

For Walmart, this is one of those ideas that will be interesting to watch.  Mostly to see if their corporate investment appetite continues to allow them to innovate in areas like this.

I would be willing to try it out but I must admit that it has a pretty huge creep factor.

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/
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