Walmart mobilizes for holiday rush

Walmart is introducing new app features as part of its holiday shopping offering — including scan and shop services on its seasonal toy catalog. 

For the first time, customers with Apple iOS and Google Android devices can use their phones to shop directly from the pages of Walmart's toy catalog. The new digitized experience – 'Scan & Shop powered by Digimarc' – has already launched. It  lets customers scan and shop hundreds of toys, including more than 150 exclusives, through the Walmart app.

“Creating convenience for Walmart’s customers was a key priority for this year’s toy catalog,” said Alvis Washington, VP of marketing, Walmart. “Through our partnership with Digimarc, we were able to enhance our catalog with a scan & shop option for our customers. This is an exciting new feature that I know will resonate with our customers.” 

Walmart activated the seasonal toy catalog by enhancing pages with Digimarc Barcode, an advanced barcode that adds functionality while remaining imperceptible to consumers. Walmart also integrated Digimarc's mobile software development kit  into its flagship app for both iOS and Android to enable the scan & shop feature for customers.

The scannable toy catalog is part Walmart’s holiday season initiative which includes early deals and new and expanded shopping services.  The discount giant will provide special Black Friday store maps as part of its existing mobile store map function. The store-specific location of all Black Friday sale items will be available a few hours before Walmart’s Black Friday event, which starts in stores at 6 p.m. local time on Thanksgiving, Nov. 28. 

In-store locations of the most sought-after Black Friday deals are already live on the app for advance planning. To make finding items easier, Walmart is offering color-coding of items across its Black Friday ad, on the Walmart app, and in stores. Stores will also feature associate vests, signs and balloons matching the color of their item from the ad. In addition, “Check Out With Me” associates will give customers the option of paying for purchases where they are shopping in the store at all Walmart supercenters on Black Friday.

Black Friday at Walmart will start online at 10 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Nov. 27. Starting Friday, Nov. 22 at 12 a.m. ET, Walmart will offer savings on select items during a “Pre-Black Friday” event.