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Walmart Gears Up Automation Capabilities

The retail giant fires a shot across the bow of other large distributors by scaling up local fulfillment centers using automation.

March 9, 2021

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According to a company memo seen by Reuters and The Wall Street Journal, retail giant Walmart Inc. will begin to charge extra fees to some of its suppliers to transport goods to its warehouses and stores in response to rising fuel and transportation costs.

According to a company memo seen by Reuters and The Wall Street Journal, retail giant Walmart Inc. will begin to charge extra fees to some of its suppliers to transport goods to its warehouses and stores in response to rising fuel and transportation costs.

Ahead of the start of the pandemic, Walmart worked for years on automation across various sectors —including distribution center technology, fulfillment center technology, and store-level market fulfillment center technology.

By working with tech companies such as Fabric, Alert Innovation and Dematic, Walmart is ramping up the build out of mini, automated fulfillment centers in stores across the U.S. According to a recent blog by Walmart U.S.’s Tom Ward, senior vice president of customer product, a local fulfillment center (LFC) is a compact, modular warehouse that is built within a store’s…

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