Walmart is leveraging its distribution centers to increase its ecommerce capabilities. It will create areas inside 42 of its Regional Distribution Centers that it’s calling “pop-up eCommerce Distribution Centers” (eDCs) to meet the growing demand of online orders.
Walmart expects up to 30% of its holiday volume to be shipped from the new pop-up eDCs.
Traditionally, the regional distribution centers ship pallets of goods to stores, but now, “facilities that have traditionally only supplied products to stores are now equipped to also fulfill online orders, just in time for the holidays,” it announced on Thursday.
“The flexibility to pop-up an eDC anytime our supply chain network experiences peak demand allows us to deliver for our customers when they need us the most,” said Greg Smith, Executive Vice President of Supply Chain for Walmart US, “all the while consistently following the health and safety measures we have had in place for months.”
A recent report from Cowen and Company analyst Oliver Chen found that over 10 million households have signed up for Walmart+, the retailer’s $98/year membership program launched in September that brings together in-store and online benefits for subscribers.
Thursday’s press release can be found on the Walmart corporate website.
