Walmart has determined that, for the time being, e-commerce-only stores are no longer necessary because the business has extended pickup and delivery operations to hundreds of full-service locations in the years after the Bentonville store launched in 2014, according to a spokeswoman.
The retailer has adapted what it learned about people’s online purchasing requirements and preferences from the pilot to its whole e-commerce operations, prompting the firm to make a “tough choice” to close the store in Bentonville, as well as its counterpart in Lincolnwood, which debuted in 2019.
Both of the specialized e-commerce facilities that are shutting this week are far smaller than traditional Walmart supercenters, which may span more than 200,000 square feet.
According to the representative, Walmart previously had a pickup-only shop in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, Louisiana, which shuttered last year.
The businesses were targeted for closure because they “didn’t perform as well as we had intended… “Our decision is based on a number of reasons, including historical and present financial performance, and is consistent with the threshold that governs our policy to close underperforming sites,” added the spokesman.
