Walmart is moving deeper into food delivery, expanding its digital business beyond supermarket shopping and into the restaurant delivery market.
The US retail giant is working with Dunkin’ to offer restaurant delivery through Walmart’s growing delivery network, bringing the supermarket operator into more direct competition with established delivery platforms such as DoorDash and Uber Eats.
The initial rollout covers around 150 Walmart locations, with plans to expand the service further. The partnership could eventually connect customers with Dunkin’ locations across the United States, giving Walmart another way to use its stores and delivery infrastructure to serve consumers in their local areas.
The move is important because Walmart already has one of the largest physical retail networks in the US. Its stores are close to a huge proportion of American households, giving the company an advantage that online-only delivery businesses cannot easily reproduce.
Walmart’s strategy is no longer simply about getting groceries from a supermarket to a customer’s front door. The retailer is increasingly building its digital platform around convenience, using its stores as local fulfilment points for a wider range of products and services.
Adding restaurant orders creates another potential reason for consumers to use the Walmart app. A customer could order groceries, household products or other items while also having food and drinks delivered, creating a broader shopping ecosystem around the Walmart brand.
For DoorDash and Uber Eats, the development is worth watching. Both companies have built powerful positions in restaurant delivery, but Walmart brings something different to the market: thousands of physical stores, a large existing customer base and an established delivery operation.
Dunkin’ also gains from the arrangement. The coffee and food chain can reach Walmart customers through another digital channel without having to build its own nationwide delivery infrastructure.
The development reflects a wider change taking place across the retail industry. Supermarkets are increasingly becoming local delivery hubs, with their existing stores being used to fulfil online orders quickly rather than serving only customers who walk through the doors.
Walmart has been investing heavily in its delivery capabilities as competition in online grocery becomes more intense. The company has increasingly positioned delivery as an important part of its relationship with customers, rather than simply an additional supermarket service.
The latest partnership shows where that strategy could be heading.
Walmart is effectively turning its supermarket network into a local-commerce platform, and the battle for the customer’s delivery order is becoming much bigger than groceries.
As supermarkets expand into convenience, restaurants and other forms of rapid delivery, the traditional boundaries between grocery retailers, restaurants and delivery companies are becoming increasingly difficult to define.
For Walmart, the objective is clear: keep more consumer spending inside its own digital ecosystem while making use of the physical stores it already has across America.
The supermarket giant is no longer just competing for the weekly grocery shop. It is competing for the delivery order.