Walmart Ups the Ante on E-Commerce Experience Ahead of Holidays

Online shoppers will have access to virtual queue, personalized options, more

10/27/2022

Black Friday shoppers on Walmart's website and app will be able to enter a virtual queue to purchase some of the most sought-after products.

Walmart’s online customers can count on a fast, frictionless and engaging shopping experience this holiday season thanks to a bevy of site enhancements and new features.

Developed by Walmart’s global tech and e-commerce product teams, the new virtual queuing feature will hold a customer’s place in line for the highest demand items during Black Friday events while they continue shopping the retailer’s site. Customers can have their spot held in multiple queues, and will have access to their place in line, estimated wait time and how long they have to checkout.

A new “buy now” option for most products across categories will give customers the option to purchase items directly from their respective pages. Additionally, search results will now include the most viewed and purchased items to help customers quickly locate popular items, and item pages will display how many people are viewing the item and how many people have it in their carts.

“Every improvement to the site experience helps us create a faster, more engaging and more personalized experience for our customers, and we’re just getting started,” wrote Brock McKeel, SVP of site experience for Walmart E-Commerce, in a company blog post. “The closest store to our customer is in their pocket, and they can trust us to make it easy for them to save time, save money, and, ultimately, live better this holiday season."

With Walmart reporting that 78% of customers said inflation will have some or a great deal of impact on their holiday shopping, the retailer is also adding green price tags to items that are on sale. The retailer will also work to maximize customer exposure to those sale items throughout multiple touchpoints in the customer journey.

Increased personalization is also on the docket for Walmart e-commerce. The “View in Your Home” feature has been expanded to more than 200 televisions on the company’s iOS app and lets customers virtually see how a TV would fit in their space before they purchase it. The previously announced styling feature powered by Stylitics, which suggests complementary apparel and accessories, has been expanded to men’s, baby and kids’ apparel for select brands.

Walmart also introduced a spate of online shopping enhancements in September, including a simpler gift registry experience and online filters that allow shoppers to view only SNAP-eligible items and easily identify EBT-eligible products through clear badging.

Each week, approximately 230 million customers and members visit Walmart’s more than 10,500 stores and numerous e-commerce websites under 46 banners in 24 countries. The company employs approximately 2.3 million associates worldwide. Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart U.S. is No. 1 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.