With grocery pickup and delivery service apps seeing record demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent article by TechCrunch highlights that the Walmart Grocery app not only hit an all-time high in downloads, but has grabbed the number 1 ranking position across all shopping apps in the U.S. on April 5th, 2020, surpassing Amazon by 20% in the process.
The app was able to retain the top position for at least 2 consecutive days. With the enormous success and interest that the app has garnered, Walmart’s original plans to wind down the app and fold it into it’s flagship mobile app & site are now potentially jeopardized as it will take a significantly longer time to shift consumers between apps.
The benefits from uniting the two apps are still present. For example, folding Walmart Grocery into the main Walmart app gives the company the ability to direct marketing dollars into only promoting one Walmart app vs. doing so for two apps. Of course, another benefit of doing this is that Walmart would also have the ability to cross-sell consumers and help drive sales across many different departments (e.g. influencing grocery shoppers to buy items in the apparel department, etc.). Furthermore, Walmart’s main app would get the millions of customers that Walmart Grocery has and with it, a robust boost in its app ranking.
I think it will be interesting to see how COVID continues to alter the business strategies of prominent retailers while also encouraging new entrants to what is quickly becoming a very competitive market in online grocery. At the present, the demand for online grocery is clearly outpacing the supply and it will be fascinating to watch how many entrants not only successfully penetrate the market but how many actually survive and thrive once COVID ultimately winds down.
https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/09/walmart-grocery-app-sees-record-downloads-amid-covid-19-surpasses-amazon-by-20/
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