What Retailers Can Learn From Walmart's Incredible E-Commerce Growth In 2017

An employee restocks shelves of school supplies at a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. location in Burbank, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017. Wal-Mart Stores is scheduled to release earnings figures on August 17. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

This year, Walmart posted an impressive 60% year-over-year e-commerce growth. Walmart is the third-largest online marketplace in the U.S. and it’s also growing total online sales faster than Amazon and eBay.

Let’s take a look at what Walmart has done to shrink the gap between itself and its biggest competitors, including Amazon, and explore ways that retailers can learn from Walmart to drive digital growth and results.

Walmart Marketplace

Walmart Marketplace is its marketplace of third-party sellers. In 2016, Walmart Marketplace expanded its number of sellers and SKUs. It paid off, as gross merchandise value sold via Walmart's U.S. e-commerce segment surged 67% from Q1 to Q2 this year.

E-commerce retailers can enhance sales and awareness of their own products and offerings by participating in large marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart.

In-Store Pickup

Shopping behaviors are not an either-or proposition where consumers shop either in-store or online. The two worlds are merging faster than ever, and in-store pickup is a sign of the times.

Walmart is using its retail footprint -- it has stores within 10 miles of 90% of the U.S. population -- to compete with the likes of Amazon. With Walmart’s pickup discount feature, online shoppers can select to have items shipped to their local stores and enjoy a discount on those items.

Retailers should look for opportunities to test this feature if their shipping, logistics and store footprint can support it. The key to success here is to collect zip code information from online shoppers in order to understand whether the shopper is within a reasonable proximity to a local store to support this feature.

Innovations In Supply Chain To Improve Delivery

According to a report by Walker Sands, 55% of online shoppers used Amazon Prime in the past year, which has increased expectations that shipping should always be fast, free and trackable.

E-commerce retailers can ensure speedy and seamless shipping experiences by:

• Leveraging in-store analytics and warehouse and inventory management systems to understand and optimize every one of their inventory locations.

• Using APIs to better manage costs by expanding carrier selection, tracking and integrating with critical systems, and to drive complex inventory and shipping processes.

• Taking advantage of cloud solutions that connect to existing systems more seamlessly than on-premises solutions. They also allow retailers to innovate more quickly by frequently testing new features and functionalities .

Like most e-commerce retailers, Walmart wants to get orders into the hands of its customers as quickly as possible. Though it has optimized its supply chain for speedy shipping, it is now also testing new delivery methods. In Uber fashion, Walmart asks associates in some of its stores to make a few customer deliveries in their off hours or on their way home.

Another way of leveraging its store footprint to speed up delivery to the customer is via Walmart's new pickup towers. Like large vending machines inside a select few Walmart stores, a customer scans their receipt and, like magic, their product arrives.

Retailers can test their own ways of getting products into the hands of customers more quickly through services like UberRUSH and Deliv.

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An employee restocks shelves of school supplies at a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. location in Burbank, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2017. Wal-Mart Stores is scheduled to release earnings figures on August 17. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

This year, Walmart posted an impressive 60% year-over-year e-commerce growth. Walmart is the third-largest online marketplace in the U.S. and it’s also growing total online sales faster than Amazon and eBay.

Let’s take a look at what Walmart has done to shrink the gap between itself and its biggest competitors, including Amazon, and explore ways that retailers can learn from Walmart to drive digital growth and results.

Walmart Marketplace

Walmart Marketplace is its marketplace of third-party sellers. In 2016, Walmart Marketplace expanded its number of sellers and SKUs. It paid off, as gross merchandise value sold via Walmart's U.S. e-commerce segment surged 67% from Q1 to Q2 this year.

E-commerce retailers can enhance sales and awareness of their own products and offerings by participating in large marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart.

In-Store Pickup

Shopping behaviors are not an either-or proposition where consumers shop either in-store or online. The two worlds are merging faster than ever, and in-store pickup is a sign of the times.

Walmart is using its retail footprint -- it has stores within 10 miles of 90% of the U.S. population -- to compete with the likes of Amazon. With Walmart’s pickup discount feature, online shoppers can select to have items shipped to their local stores and enjoy a discount on those items.

Retailers should look for opportunities to test this feature if their shipping, logistics and store footprint can support it. The key to success here is to collect zip code information from online shoppers in order to understand whether the shopper is within a reasonable proximity to a local store to support this feature.

Innovations In Supply Chain To Improve Delivery

According to a report by Walker Sands, 55% of online shoppers used Amazon Prime in the past year, which has increased expectations that shipping should always be fast, free and trackable.

E-commerce retailers can ensure speedy and seamless shipping experiences by:

• Leveraging in-store analytics and warehouse and inventory management systems to understand and optimize every one of their inventory locations.

• Using APIs to better manage costs by expanding carrier selection, tracking and integrating with critical systems, and to drive complex inventory and shipping processes.

• Taking advantage of cloud solutions that connect to existing systems more seamlessly than on-premises solutions. They also allow retailers to innovate more quickly by frequently testing new features and functionalities .

Like most e-commerce retailers, Walmart wants to get orders into the hands of its customers as quickly as possible. Though it has optimized its supply chain for speedy shipping, it is now also testing new delivery methods. In Uber fashion, Walmart asks associates in some of its stores to make a few customer deliveries in their off hours or on their way home.

Another way of leveraging its store footprint to speed up delivery to the customer is via Walmart's new pickup towers. Like large vending machines inside a select few Walmart stores, a customer scans their receipt and, like magic, their product arrives.

Retailers can test their own ways of getting products into the hands of customers more quickly through services like UberRUSH and Deliv.

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