Today in Retail: Sezzle Canada Adds Walmart, Uber, More; Walmart Increases Driver Pay, Rolls out Private Fleet Program

Today in retail, Sezzle Canada expands its reach, while Walmart hands out pay raises to drivers. Plus, Wing begins drone delivery of medications and more, Neighbor looks to stay profitable amid growing its staff, and Flipkart is pushing off its initial public offering (IPO) until next year.

Sezzle Canada Broadens BNPL Offering Reach

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform Sezzle Canada has expanded its mobile app to allow purchases from Walmart, Indigo, HomeSense, Uber and other merchants. Shoppers can make purchases and spread their payments out over four equal, interest-free installments through the app. The addition of several high-profile merchants will give Sezzle Canada customers more choices when it comes to making their online purchases.

Walmart Hikes Driver Pay, Launches Private Fleet Program

Walmart is giving pay raises to its almost 12,000 drivers. The company is also launching what it called its Fleet Development Program designed to attract even more drivers. The 12-week course where supply chain workers earned their commercial driver’s license (CDL) and became full-fledged Private Fleet drivers for Walmart debuted recently in the Dover, Delaware and Dallas areas.

Wing Debuts US Drone Delivery of Medicines, Ice Cream, First Aid Kits, Pet Prescriptions

Wing has debuted its drone-based delivery service from the parking lot of a Walgreens store in Little Elm, Texas, kicking off the largest initiative of its kind for the Alphabet Inc. subsidiary in the U.S. and its first customer-operated drone fleet. Customers can also order ice cream from Blue Bell Creameries, pet prescriptions from easyvet veterinary clinics and first-aid kits from Texas Health Resources. Deliveries are limited to “tens of thousands of suburban homes” in Frisco and Little Elm for now.

With Luxe Nesting Niceties, D2C Model Moves Into the Market for Patio Furniture

Neighbor Co-Founder and CEO Nicholas Arambula told PYMNTS that the outdoor furniture market is “kind of a barbell market where at one end you have really low cost, low quality stuff. At the other end, there’s incredibly high quality, really expensive stuff.” Having completed its Series A funding in March, Neighbor is primed to move on three initiatives that will bring the fast-growing company to scale and get its signature looks on more patios.

Report: Walmart’s eCommerce Company Flipkart Delays IPO, Raises Valuation Target

Flipkart, Walmart’s India-based eCommerce company, has put its IPO on hold as it raised the valuation target to between $60 billion and $70 billion, up from its initial goal of $50 billion. The company is planning to go public in 2023. The delay stems, in part, from Flipkart’s plan to boost its value by focusing on its online healthcare services and travel bookings, both relatively new businesses.

Cash Back Service Ibotta Launches Retail Rewards Network

Cash back rewards platform Ibotta has launched the Ibotta Performance Network (IPN), a retail network to reach more than 120 million American shoppers. The company hopes to use IPN to expand its scope to deliver B2B Rewards-as-a-Service (RaaS) solutions to retailers, publishers and advertisers in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) sector and beyond. Ibotta will also debut its first B2B brand identity campaign, featuring ads based “around the idea that promotions will never be the same.”

Competition Highlights Future Retail Use Cases for 5G XR

Emerging technologies that will help retailers serve customers inside and outside the physical store are being highlighted in a worldwide competition hosted by T-Mobile U.S. and T-Labs, the research and development unit of Deutsche Telekom. In the “T-Challenge,” T-Mobile and T-Labs invite entries that aim to transform the retail industry by deploying 5G-powered extended reality (XR) technology. In the next phase of the competition, the 20 finalists will continue to refine their solutions and then present them to the judges in June. Six winners will then split $500,000 in prize money and have their solutions featured in T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom stores in the U.S. and Europe.

Costco’s Strong March Sales Reflect Cautious Consumers, Put Retailers on Watch

New sales data from the country’s largest chain of warehouse stores shows consumers are making changes in how and where they shop as a result of the spike in energy prices and related costs caused by the Russia-Ukraine war. Costco said in its March sales results that its same-store sales rose a better-than-expected 18.7% for the five weeks ending April 3, to $21.6 billion. Even when gasoline prices — which spiked 35% in late February when the war began — are ignored, the $260 billion retail giant said sales from its 573 U.S.-based warehouse stores still rose 12.7% versus a year ago.

Levi’s Flexes Brand Power Pricing Muscles, Touts D2C Success of Next-Gen Stores

Strong demand from customers around the world combined with brand power that enabled price increases saw denim retailer and manufacturer Levi Strauss start the year with double-digit sales growth and record gross margins. In discussing its first-quarter results for the three months that ended Feb. 27, the San Francisco-based company also said its ongoing shift to grow its digital and direct-to-consumer (D2C) businesses was paying off, noting that total revenues rose 22% while its D2C sales rose 35%.

New Report Shows Impact of Amazon Prime, Walmart+ on Consumer Spend

Membership-based shopping services have swelled in popularity in the past few years. Amazon Prime, in particular, has become a significant part of the retail landscape. Other mass retailers, including Walmart, have responded to consumers’ enthusiasm by entering the shopping subscription landscape themselves. As the market has grown saturated, however, these retailers have seen their numbers plateau, with memberships to shopping subscriptions dropping slightly during the past year.