Walmart Taps Google for Omnichannel Commerce Play
Google and Walmart are teaming up to take on Amazon (and Alexa) with voice-activated commerce and more plans for 2018.
Starting in late September, the retail giant will be working with Google to offer hundreds of thousands of items for voice shopping via Google Assistant—the largest number of items currently offered by a retailer through the platform. Consumers will be able to buy through voice with Google Assistant on Google Home or on the Google Express website or app.
“I believe our job at Walmart isn’t only about saving our customers money, but also about making shopping faster and easier,” writes Marc Lore, president and CEO, Walmart U.S. eCommerce, in a blog post announcing the partnership.
“One of the primary use cases for voice shopping will be the ability to build a basket of previously purchased everyday essentials,” he adds. “That’s why we decided to deeply integrate our Easy Reorder feature into Google Express. This will enable us to deliver highly personalized shopping recommendations based on customers’ previous purchases, including those made in Walmart stores and on Walmart.com.”
To use the service, customers link their Walmart accounts to Google Express.
Next year the partners plan to use Walmart’s 4,700 U.S. stores and fulfillment network “to create customer experiences that don’t currently exist within voice shopping anywhere else, including choosing to pick up an order in store (often for a discount) or using voice shopping to purchase fresh groceries across the country.”
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