Walmart is enhancing its digital shopping experience with the introduction of “Text to Shop,” a new feature designed to streamline how customers populate their online shopping carts. This move, announced just a week after launching its visual search tool TrendGetter, underscores Walmart’s commitment to leveraging technology to compete in the increasingly digital retail landscape, particularly against e-commerce giant Amazon.
The “Text to Shop” feature directly integrates with a customer’s Walmart account, simplifying the process of adding items to their online shopping cart. According to a press release from December 14th, Walmart explains that the system recognizes past purchases, enabling users to simply text the items they need to automatically add them to their cart. This conversational commerce approach allows shoppers to quickly build their Walmart Online Shopping Cart by sending a text message.
This tool provides access to Walmart’s extensive product range, including both items available at local stores and on Walmart.com. Features like the “reorder” text command further simplify the shopping process, allowing customers to easily replenish frequently purchased items in their Walmart online shopping cart. This focus on convenience and efficiency is a key strategy for Walmart as it strives to enhance its online shopping platform.
Walmart’s investment in digital tools like “Text to Shop” reflects the ongoing battle for e-commerce dominance with Amazon. By venturing into conversational commerce, Walmart aims to bridge the gap between brick-and-mortar convenience and the ease of digital shopping, making it simpler for customers to manage their Walmart online shopping cart and complete purchases.
Available on both Android and iOS platforms, enrollment for “Text to Shop” is straightforward. Customers can text their shopping lists, which are then compiled directly into their Walmart.com shopping cart. Checkout can be completed within the app, offering options for home delivery or in-store pickup. This seamless integration aims to make the Walmart online shopping cart experience more user-friendly and accessible, especially for mobile users.
The beta version of “Text to Shop,” launched in October 2021, provided Walmart with valuable insights into customer preferences for conversational shopping experiences. This builds upon previous innovations like Walmart Voice Order, introduced in 2019, which allowed customers to manage their shopping carts using voice commands on smart devices. These continuous advancements demonstrate Walmart’s dedication to evolving its online shopping cart and overall digital offerings to meet customer needs.
Furthermore, the recent launch of TrendGetter, Walmart’s image recognition technology, exemplifies this innovative approach. TrendGetter allows users to perform visual searches by uploading pictures of products to find matching items on Walmart’s website, further enhancing the online shopping experience and contributing to a more robust Walmart online shopping cart ecosystem.
Recent data underscores the growing importance of mobile devices in e-commerce. A PYMNTS study, “Digital Economy Payments: November 2022 U.S. Edition — The Rise of Mobile eCommerce,” revealed that in the third quarter of 2022, mobile devices were used for 15% of non-grocery and 9.8% of grocery shopping. This trend highlights the increasing significance of mobile-friendly features like “Text to Shop” for enhancing the Walmart online shopping cart experience and capturing the mobile shopping market.
Industry experts are also observing these trends closely. Karen Webster, in a PYMNTS analysis, discussed Amazon’s adjustments in its Alexa investments, noting that while there were concerns, the future of digital assistants in shopping is evolving. Webster suggests that these assistants will become more proactive, reminding users to reorder items based on purchase history, further streamlining the online shopping cart experience and making it even more convenient for customers to manage their Walmart online shopping cart and beyond. This proactive approach, combined with features like “Text to Shop,” points towards a future where managing your Walmart online shopping cart is not just easy, but intuitively integrated into daily life.
