Walmart chasing ‘Amazon magic’ in expanding online delivery

Walmart’s expansion of its same-day, online grocery to serve more than 100 cities across the U.S. by the end of the year is an attempt to capture the magic of the e-commerce giant Amazon, according to Walmart’s former CEO.

“The question is trying to get to that scale, and then to get that Amazon magic, that says you don’t have to make any money, but as long as you’re going, you’re topline,” Bill Simon told FOX Business’ Charles Payne. “If that rubs off on Walmart, I think they’ll be fine. If it doesn’t, it’s going to be challenging.”

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
WMT	WALMART INC.	60.21	+0.34	+0.57%

Walmart’s current grocery delivery is only available in six cities but will expand to more than 40% of households by end of 2018, according to a press release. Using the Walmart Grocery App, or logging in online, customers can place orders and receive the groceries as soon as the same day. Whole Foods – which Amazon purchased last year – recently announced that it would offer free delivery within two hours to Prime members in four U.S. cities, raising the stakes in the already competitive food-delivery business. “There’s a lot of market share to be gained in brick-and-mortar retail,” said Simon, who served at the helm of Walmart from 2010 to 2014.”Walmart made the decision to go in a different direction several years ago, and it’s executing that strategy. They’re committed to it. They’ve redesigned their board to deal with it, and we’ll see if it works out for them.”