Walmart is putting the power of e-Commerce in its associates’ hands, letting them use their devices to place orders for out-of-stock items on the spot. The retail giant will further increase associate efficiency with the use of AI-powered floor scrubbers that will be able to handle floor cleanup on their own.
Associates will have access to the entire stock of Walmart.com, and shoppers can choose whether they would prefer to have their items shipped to the store or their home. Customers will then receive a receipt or an email, which they can use to pay for their purchase at any register in the store.
While this e-Commerce app is its most recent addition, Walmart has introduced several other behind-the-scenes apps this year:
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- PlanIT: Keeps associates up to date on the latest company and store announcements, and helps managers track projects;
- The Receiving App: Tells backroom associates exactly which products have just arrived at the store, eliminating the need to manually count inventory;
- The Downstock App: Lets associates know what needs to be restocked and where;
- The Price Change App: Plans out a route to help associates efficiently update in-store price tags;
- The Availability App: Tracks out-of-stocks and when they occurred to help managers determine what is causing them;
- The Claims App: Outlines the options for handling returned merchandise, such as whether it should be sold at clearance price or simply discarded; and
- The Sales App: Tracks product sales so that associates can see how departments and even individual products perform over time.
Technology also will help Walmart associates spend more time with customers and less time cleaning, with a fleet of autonomous floor scrubbers. Brain Corp. has provided the AI being used to power the machines’ navigation and data collection capabilities. Walmart will roll out 360 robots by Jan. 31, 2019.
“We’re excited to work with Brain Corp. in supporting our retail operations and providing our associates with a safe and reliable technology,” says John Crecelius, Walmart’s VP of Central Operations in a statement. “BrainOS is a powerful tool in helping our associates complete repetitive tasks so they can focus on other tasks within role and spend more time serving customers.”
