THE FUTURE OF DELIVERY: Walmart Ecommerce USA President & CEO Marc Lore’s Vision

“Delivery Right into the Fridge”

The next steps in food delivery take “delivery” to a whole new level, Walmart's ecommerce chief tells CNBC.

Marc Lore, the president and CEO of Walmart's U.S. ecommerce business, told Jim Cramer in an exclusive interview this week that “delivery right into the fridge” could be in the cards as Walmart expands its delivery services.

Watch Jim Cramer's interview with Walmart's Marc Lore >>>>

Lore, who co-founded Walmart subsidiary Jet.com, envisions consumers getting a “one-time code” at the start of the process.

“After the one-time code has been issued, the delivery person arrives with a camera on their chest, you can watch it on your smartphone and see them come in, put it in your fridge and leave, to sort of build confidence and trust in these Walmart associates doing it, so, imagine going out to work, coming home, and there it is, the stuff's in your fridge already.”

The next step beyond that would be “not even having to order” the food you're getting, said Lore, who has served as the head of Walmart ecommerce since September 2016.

“How about just being able to keep you in stock on everything you need and not even have to think about it? That's the future,” he told Cramer.

Walmart Tests New Last-Mile Grocery Delivery Service

Earlier this year, Walmart announced a new last-mile delivery pilot – Spark Delivery – exploring an additional way to get groceries from their stores to customers’ front doors.

Spark Delivery is a crowd-sourced (Uber-like) delivery platform that allows Walmart to learn even more about the full last-mile delivery process.

The pilot uses an in-house platform that provides drivers with the ability to sign up for windows of time that work best for their schedule as well as Grocery Delivery order details, navigation assistance and more. Components of Spark are powered by Bringg, a leading delivery logistics technology platform.

Walmart’s team of personal shoppers are an important component of the overall process as they meticulously shop for customers’ orders. Spark Delivery engages the services of independent drivers who partner with Delivery Drivers, Inc, a nationwide firm who specializes in last-mile contractor management, to complete deliveries.

Walmart and Amazon’s Rivalry is Reshaping How We’ll Buy Everything in the Future

As reported by The Verge, Walmart’s ongoing battle with Amazon for the retail crown is expanding well beyond retail, and it’s forcing one of the largest companies in the world to reexamine its DNA.

In the last six months alone, Walmart has partnered with scores of tech firms to better compete with Amazon and make progress in markets that may become pivotal years down the line.

It’s also begun rethinking how it views itself: a traditional big-box retail giant that now hopes it can be nimble enough to compete with one of technology’s most powerful players.

Following its purchase of Jet.com to advance its ecommerce efforts in 2016, Walmart has starting accelerating its shift from retail giant to tech-focused partner.

Those deals now include a partnership with Alphabet’s Waymo for rides to and from stores; Japan’s Rakuten for Kobo e-readers; and Uber, Lyft, and Postmates for grocery delivery.

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