Walmart Acquires Delivery Company Parcel To Beef Up Last Mile Delivery

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Acquisition will help with Walmart deliveries in New York City

Walmart has announced the acquisition of Parcel, a same-day and last-mile delivery company based in New York. While the company did not disclose the acquisition price, Walmart noted the deal was smaller than its previous acquisitions this year, which include Modcloth, Moosejaw and Bonobos.

Walmart has been aggressive in its efforts to pursue delivery for its customers. In 2016, it piloted same-day delivery initiatives in partnership with Uber, Lyft, and Deliv, offering delivery when placing grocery orders online, as Retail IT Insights reported. And in June of this year, Walmart also began testing delivery by store associates in order to help with fulfillment of online orders. The Beta test involved associates who volunteered to delivery products for additional wages, according to Retail IT Insights. 

According to Walmart, Parcel is a “technology based, same-day and last-mile delivery company specializing in perishable and non-perishable delivery to customers in New York City. They also provide services like scheduled evening delivery and custom text message notifications for high-growth ecommerce companies looking to differentiate their customer experience.” For the retail giant, Parcel will provide speed, flexibility, and reliability in its order fulfillment and delivery in the New York area.

Nate Faust, senior vice president, Walmart U.S. eCommerce Supply Chain, explained, “Parcel has partnerships with several meal kit, grocery and e-commerce companies, and has delivered more than 1 million meals in the past two years. So our immediate plan is for Parcel to continue serving its existing clients and growing its customer base. There’s a lot of upside and I’m excited about the potential there.

But I see even more upside for our own same-day deliveries. Jet has been testing free same-day delivery of certain orders to customers in New York City. We can build upon that and plan to leverage Parcel for last-mile delivery to customers in New York City – including same-day delivery – for both general merchandise as well as fresh and frozen groceries from Walmart and Jet.”

Using routing algorithms, leased vehicles and an employee-based workforce, Parcel is able to sort, load and deliver packages to customers on the same day, overnight and in scheduled two-hour windows, according to the press release.