Sam’s Club Offers eCommerce Shoppers Hour-or-Less Deliveries

Sam’s Club says members can now get their orders in an hour or less. Possibly much less.

“Members love our three hours or less express delivery, but they told us they wanted an even faster option—so, we delivered,” Greg Pulsifer, senior vice president for eCommerce at the Walmart-owned big box retailer, said in a news release Wednesday (April 22).

“Our 10 fastest deliveries to date were all fulfilled in less than 12 minutes. When members need emergency baby essentials or dinners on the fly, we’re not just delivering speed, but peace of mind and time back so they can focus on the things that matter most.”

Sam’s Club says that since initial testing of the program at 600 stores began earlier this month, it has made nearly 65,000 Express deliveries, with the average order fulfilled in 55 minutes.

“A significant share of these orders includes everyday essentials such as water, produce, rotisserie chicken, and paper goods, signaling members are leveraging the service for immediate needs, not just convenience add-ons,” the release said.

The company cites the example of a daycare in Fargo, North Dakota, which received its order of baby formula in under 9 minutes, and the new parents in Amarillo, Texas, whose diapers and pistachios arrived in 11 minutes.

The shorter delivery windows come as Walmart and rival Amazon try to get goods to shoppers faster as they increasingly compete for the same consumer.

Amazon has recently begun offering new one- and three-hour delivery options. As PYMNTS wrote earlier this month, this could be “a Trojan horse service” that could help embed the tech giant into people’s everyday consumption habits.

“This is less about faster shipping and more about increasing purchase frequency, capturing impulse demand and embedding Amazon deeper into the fabric of daily consumption,” Shauna Bowen, chief digital and transformation officer at Radial, said in an interview with PYMNTS.

“As Amazon expands automated, purpose-built local fulfillment, Walmart will need to invest in automation and operating model changes or absorb higher costs to stay competitive.”

Delivery speed, however, isn’t everything. Dinesh Gauri, a professor of marketing at the University at Buffalo School of Management, told PYMNTS that although quick fulfillment is important, Amazon and Walmart are “killing their margins” by focusing on it too much. Shoppers, he added, still want competitive pricing and accurate inventory information (which isn’t always easy to find, as past PYMNTS Intelligence research shows).