Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) has reportedly begun testing an online grocery delivery service in San Jose, California. The move is seen as part of the company's efforts to better compete with online retailer Amazon.com Inc.(AMZN), and Safeway Inc. (SWY).
The company is said to have begun testing the new service called "Walmart To Go" on Saturday at San Jose, which is close to Wal-Mart's online headquarters. The service enables customers to order groceries and consumables found in a Walmart store and have them delivered to their homes.
Customers can purchase products including fresh produce, meat and seafood, over-the-counter pharmacy, household supplies, health and beauty items and other basic household goods online. Delivery charges for the online delivery service start at $5. However, a minimum order of $49 is required.
Wal-Mart may reportedly expand the test to other markets only after obtaining the results from San Jose.
Online grocery company Fresh Direct and Peapod, as well as Amazon.com's AmazonFresh offer grocery delivery service. However, Wal-Mart's move is seen as efforts to combine store and web retailing to provide services that cannot be offered by online competitors.
WMT closed Thursday's trading at $53.58, down $0.11 or 0.20 percent on a volume of 5.87 million shares.
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