Walmart (WMT) is going beyond doorstep grocery delivery. Starting today, the retail giant is debuting its InHome grocery delivery program, offering customers the convenience of having their refrigerators stocked with fresh groceries by hired couriers.
The company announced the program back in June, promising to further save its customers the time and hassle of the much-dreaded grocery store trip. In a preview earlier this year, CEO of Walmart eCommerce, Marc Lore, outlined the way InHome aims to become the way people shop for ingredients.
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At an “intro subscription rate” of $19.95 a month (plus a $50 home smart lock), Walmart confirmed that InHome rolled out in Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Vero Beach on Tuesday.
“We’re obsessed with simplifying grocery shopping and finding ways to make our customers’ lives easier,” wrote Bart Stein, Walmart’s senior VP of membership and InHome. “That’s why InHome goes the extra step so that our customers can live their lives without worrying about making it to the store or being home to accept a delivery.”
InHome customers do need to place a minimum order of “$30 per basket” to qualify for the fridge-stock delivery. To address home security concerns, Walmart says the delivery workers will be required to have at least one year of experience at the company, on top of consenting to background checks and driving record vetting.
According to the company, the seamless “grocery trip” will feature its associates using “smart entry technology and a proprietary, wearable camera to access the customer’s home—allowing customers to control access into their homes and giving them the ability to watch the deliveries remotely.”
The move is Walmart’s latest in a series of strategies to compete with Amazon (AMZN)’s growing hold on the grocery delivery category. It’s too early to tell whether InHome will actually “change the grocery delivery game” the way the retailer is hoping it will. Similar in-home delivery services that also use a smart lock, such as Amazon’s In-Home Delivery program, have failed to match the popularity of traditional delivery drop-offs in recent years.
InHome is set to roll out in more cities over the coming months.
