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Walmart adds 500 Pickup Towers to its stores across the US

Walmart adds 500 Pickup Towers to its stores across the US

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Image: Walmart

Walmart is adding more than 500 more Pickup Towers to its US stores by the end of this year, the company announced yesterday, as spotted by TechCrunch. Each Pickup Tower lets users grab their online orders from tall kiosks inside Walmart stores.

After completing an online order, customers will be notified when their item is available for pickup at a tower. They can then drive to the store, scan a barcode into the kiosk computer, and the item is delivered into the customer’s hands.

Walmart is also trying to stay competitive with Amazon by offering customers cheaper discounts on online-only items if they choose to pick up in store rather than have the product shipped to their house. Shipping to Walmart stores costs less for the company than to people’s individual homes, given how fulfillment centers and large bulk orders work.

Since Amazon doesn’t have nearly as many brick-and-mortar stores as Walmart does, and users have to pick up from Amazon Lockers instead of getting the in-store experience most of the time, it’s potentially a way for Walmart to attract more customers. (Although, Amazon does use its Whole Foods stores as locations for Amazon Lockers after it acquired the grocery chain last year.)

Last year, Walmart introduced almost 200 Pickup Towers, and after seeing more than half a million orders sent to the towers, now it’s expanding the program. About 40 percent of the US population will have access to the feature by the end of this year, Walmart estimates.

The company is also adding Pickup Lockers inside of the new 500 Pickup Towers, additional space for the towers to fit larger objects, like mini-fridges and televisions. Customers can then grab larger items from inside the Pickup Lockers where those products will be stored.