Walmart connects brands to holiday shoppers via social media, AR
Walmart is offering several new omnichannel touchpoints, tools and partnerships to directly connect customers with its brand partners.
The company’s Walmart Connect media business is introducing a new omnichannel campaign called “Joy. Fully.” The campaign includes shoppable livestreams, shoppable posts, and shoppable ads. Walmart will offer a series of on- and off-platform shoppable livestreams with various publishers, well-known influencers, and other partners.
[Read more: Walmart springs forward with livestream shopping on TikTok]
In addition, a feature called “Taste. Fully” will include the discount giant’s first large-scale launch of shoppable recipes on Pinterest, with supplier partners like General Mills, Kraft and PepsiCo. Customers will have the ability to seamlessly add all ingredients from shoppable recipes to their Walmart cart and purchase them in just a few clicks.
And, through the exclusive Pinterest Trend Badge program – which taps into high-growth searches with the official Pinterest stamp of approval, Walmart Connect is promoting these shoppable recipes in conjunction with trending search terms on the platform.
[Read more: Walmart grocery customers can shop online via ingredient]
Walmart is also partnering with Facebook to launch an augmented reality (AR) lens retail experience, which will leverage facial-recognition AR to let customers interactively browse holiday gift ideas from brands including Google, Nintendo, The Lego Group, Samsung, and Straight Talk Wireless, and use nothing but their facial expressions to identify which items they are interested in. Then, directly from the AR lens, customers can visit Walmart’s online gift finder tool to shop those products and more.
Walmart has been busy boosting the services it offers holiday shoppers, as well as making sure that it can handle increased customer demand behind the scenes. The company recently extended its delivery time and made more items available for local delivery. Walmart drivers will now deliver orders two extra hours, up to 10 p.m. (local time). The change means that customers can now place orders up to 6 p.m. for same-day or next-day deliveries. The retail giant is also allowing additional time for customers to amend an order after it has been placed.
In addition, Walmart is making oversized items — ranging from bicycles to 70-inch TVs to artificial Christmas trees — to the list of products available for local delivery from more than 2,800 stores. It also has expanded the number of stores that offer pickup and delivery on alcohol. Alcohol is now available for pickup from 3,000 Walmart stores and for delivery from 1,500 locations.
Walmart also announced the launch of its second annual “Black Friday Deals for Days” promotion. As it did last year, Walmart will spread out its Black Friday savings to three events throughout November.
Furthermore, Walmart is following a multi-faceted supply chain strategy to make sure it meets customer demand for holiday products. Steps include working with suppliers to source holiday merchandise earlier than usual and finding ways to move those products inside its supply chain network as quickly as possible.
“Over the last year, General Mills has increased our focus on the concept of connected commerce – which is about building brands across both physical and digital worlds. Powered by data, digital capabilities, measurement and execution, this approach enables us to be part of the consumer journey and driving differential growth for our brands,” said Sri Rajagopalan, chief omnichannel commercial officer for General Mills. “Partnering with Walmart Connect and its growing omnichannel capabilities allows us to continually expand our reach with Walmart customers and meet the shopper in multiple places.”