Walmart ties up with Uber, Lyft to deliver grocery to customers’ homes; trials to begin this week

Walmart has added two key new partners to take on Amazon.com in the grocery delivery wars - ride-sharing giants Uber and Lyft.

In a pilot, the largest US retailer will use either Uber or Lyft for the so-called ''last mile'' of grocery delivery in small areas of Denver and Phoenix to service customers who want home delivery.

The customer would not be charged any fee for the delivery.

''We'll start small and let our customers guide us, but testing new things like last-mile delivery enables us to better understand the various ways we can best serve our customers how, when and where they need,'' said Michael Bender, the operations chief for Walmart's e-commerce arm, fortune.com reported.

The move is aimed at defending its turf against Amazon's aggressive moves on grocery deliveries, through its subscription program Prime Fresh Now, with a delivery service of its own.

According to commentators it was a high stake battle for Walmart, which garnered $167 billion last year from groceries, or 56 per cent of its overall annual sales. It can hardly offer to lose any of that business to rival grocery delivery services. US comparable sales (online sales and sales at stores open at least a year) increased only 1 per cent last year.

Walmart said it was starting ''small'' with the tests and would allow customers to guide the process going forward.

The first tests are set to go live this week or the next in Denver and Phoenix. Walmart would trial Uber in one market, while in the other it would use Lyft.

Customers would place their online orders much like they would if they were requesting curbside pickup.

Specially trained Walmart Personal Shoppers who are trained to understand how to select the best meat and produce would fill these orders. They would quickly place frozen and fresh items in a designated, temperature-controlled holding area in the back of the store.