Walmart Enhances Site Experience Ahead of Busy Holiday Season
As we approach the bustling holiday months, Walmart is preparing for an influx of traffic, making significant updates to its site and app to make the shopping experience more engaging and personalized.
Among the changes are an enhanced registry, more personalization capabilities, an overall more inclusive experience, and increased content across the website to help consumers make informed shopping decisions.
[Related: Walmart Emphasizes Importance of Digital and Customer Growth Amid ‘Dynamic’ Environment]
“Customers want to be able to shop with confidence. That’s why over the last several months, we’ve made significant improvements to our site experience and launched new features to make shopping on Walmart.com and our app easier, more engaging, and more personalized,” said Tom Ward, executive vice president and chief e-commerce officer, Walmart U.S. “This way, when customers are ready to shift into holiday mode, we will be ready with their ideal digital experience, no finger crossing required.”
Simplifying Registries
Walmart is making it easier for soon-to-be-wed couples, expectant parents, and even pet parents to create registries. Perhaps the most notable change is a new list showcasing recommended items where customers can select from the site’s most popular products across wedding and baby registries. This is currently available on Walmart.com and will be coming soon to the app.
The company will also be rolling out a new Scan to Add feature, where in-store shoppers can use the Walmart app to scan and add products to their registry. Walmart will also track purchases — including timing and who bought an item — to help registered users who want to send thank you notes.
Additionally, Walmart will be pushing its list capabilities during the holiday season, encouraging kids to make their own wish lists on Walmart.com so friends and family know which products to buy. Purchasers will be able include personalized gift messages. Additional capabilities will soon be announced, according to Walmart.
“Instead of wondering whether your nephew is more into Legos or Hot Wheels these days, you can just select from his gift list, add to cart, create a personalized gift message and make his holiday.” — Tom Ward
Taking Personalization to Another Level
Walmart has introduced a new styling feature that will help consumers style their clothing. Partnering with visual outfitting and styling solution Stylitics, the company will suggest accessories that complement shopper’s styles according to the products they are purchasing. This new capability goes well with Walmart’s Choose Your Own Model feature, which was announced last year and uses inclusive models to help portray how clothing fits on various body types.
[Read more: Walmart Dresses Up Fitting Room Experience With Virtual Tech]
As part of its inclusivity initiatives, Walmart is making EBT and SNAP payments available to online shoppers. Consumers can select a filter that allows them to view only eligible items — these products will also be clearly tagged across the site. At checkout, shoppers can simply use their EBT or SNAP credit cards.
The company has also elevated its language capabilities as part of these efforts, making improvements to its Spanish language search on Walmart.com — customers can opt in or out of the translated query and search in Spanish for over 600,000 of the most commonly ordered items.
Across-the-Board Upgrades
Overall, the company is looking to elevate the online shopping experience. This also means ensuring that all product pages have enough information so consumers can make informed shopping decisions.
[Read more: Walmart’s App Gets Augmented Reality Revamp]
Walmart said it is making these pages more robust via videos, images, and more so “they have all the information they need to feel confident purchasing it.”
“Not only are these enhancements making the e-commerce experience even easier and more convenient for our customers right now, but also, they are creating a strong foundation for us to build upon as we accelerate the site experience in the future,” said Ward.
