In a new initiative, Walmart is marching into the holiday season with an army of Holiday Helpers who will work with customers in the checkout line, the retailer announced, even as it boosts the volume of products available through its pickup service, launches a multitude of rollbacks to supplement every day low prices and adds millions of items to Walmart.com.
On November 4, Walmart Holiday Helpers will deploy to stores, the company stated, helping customers get through the checkout process faster. Holiday Helpers will offer candy canes and smiles as they assist customers in determining which lines are shortest, finding open registers as needed and grabbing items customers might have forgotten.
Over the course of the holidays, Walmart said it would treat customers to more than 150,000 planned demos as well as visits from Santa, who will make 23,000 on-site appearances throughout the season.
To make shopping more convenient, Walmart is expanding its available-for-same-day-pickup assortment as the year winds down, it said, adding tens of thousands of items in categories such as seasonal decor, apparel, toys and electronics. To facilitate a faster and easier pickup experience Walmart is also adding dedicated staff including managers in every store for the first time.
Walmart has substantially grown its online assortment from roughly 8 million items at the start of the year to 20 million items today, and the retailer indicated that it would continue adding merchandise while making the assortment easier to shop. Beginning November 1, Walmart.com will feature a top 20 list of items to showcase exclusive offerings, great prices and products customers wouldn’t expect to find at Walmart, the company added.
“I can’t remember another year when I’ve been this excited about the merchandise we are offering customers,” Steve Bratspies, chief merchandising officer, Walmart U.S., said in announcing the holiday plans. “It’s not just about one category or one item. Our whole store is going to be stocked with new, exciting items from hot toys to new electronics available at the best prices. We will win the season on price, from the first weekend in November to Black Friday and Cyber Monday and through those final weeks in December.”
