Walmart’s Latest Digital Enhancement Redefines the Store Experience

By Tim Denman

walmart hero 2-15-18Walmart had gone live with its digital store assistant giving customers a suite of shopping tools designed to simplify and enhance the in-store experience.

The world’s largest retailer announced the enhancements to its wildly popular mobile app on its blog, giving shoppers a new set of capabilities designed to differentiate and enrich the in-store experience and further blur the distinction between physical and digital retail.

The new mobile app features are designed to help shoppers streamline their shopping experience in-store, as well as prepare for their shopping visit before ever stepping foot in the store. When shoppers enter a Walmart store and launch the mobile app, it transforms into Walmart’s Store Assistant.

All of the tools you need to make shopping fast and easy, such as Walmart Pay, will be right at your fingertips,” Walmart said in its blog post. “We’ve also made the product search bar and the scanner easier to find, so you can quickly read reviews, find items in store and double-check prices.”

In addition, the retailer has added a suite of new capabilities under the Store Assistant umbrella including:

  • Smarter, Better Lists. Eighty percent of Walmart customers make a list before coming to the store, so the retailer made list building within the app more convenient. The total cart value – plus tax – will now be calculated as the customer makes the list, allowing them to see the cost of the basket before even stepping foot inside the store. In addition, consumers can see what aisle the items are located, as well as cross off and add items as they go.
  • Improved Store Navigation with Store Maps. Walmart is creating unique maps for each of its 4,700 stores. The maps will help shoppers find where an item is located, down to the aisle and shelf area. Maps are already available for a handful of stores.
  • Increased Information. Shoppers can now easily check whether a store has a department like a photo center or auto care center and see department hours and phone numbers. In addition, shoppers can check the availability of specialty items like Rug Doctor rentals straight from the app.

The new mobile features are just the latest enhancements to Walmart’s market-leading mobile application. Among the benefits app user already enjoy include: ability to choose a store pickup location and be notified when the order is ready in real-time; access Walmart Pay; price checking; easy reorder of past purchases; management of pharmacy prescriptions; price comparisons; weekly ad; wedding and baby registration; barcode scanner; and much more.