What is Pickup Tower? Pickup Tower Review, Features

The Pickup Tower, a self-service kiosk launched by Walmart in 2017, is similar to a high-tech vending machine that allows customers to pick up grocery items ordered online without interacting with an employee.

About Pickup Tower

The towers, which act like high-tech vending machines and allow customers to pick up items they ordered online, were first introduced in nearly 200 stores in 2017. The towers are one of the ways Walmart is using its massive physical stores to encourage more purchases. Walmart also announced in April 2017 that customers can get small discounts on many online items if they choose to pick up their orders at a Pickup Tower in a physical store instead of having them delivered.

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In 2017, Walmart set up nearly 200 pickup kiosks in the United States and launched the "Self-pickup Discount" feature, which allows consumers to enjoy online purchase discounts on more than 1 million items by simply picking up the goods in the store.

In 2018, Walmart announced that it would deploy 500+ Pickup Towers in its retail stores across the United States. By the end of the year, there will be more than 700 Walmart retail stores with Pickup Towers, covering 40% of the U.S. population.

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Practice has proved that this feature of Walmart is quite popular. Walmart's data shows that since the launch of Pickup Tower in 2017, Walmart has received more than 500,000 orders through this project.

Another advantage of Pickup Towers is that they allow shoppers to easily purchase larger items, such as televisions. Each new Pickup Tower will be equipped with small cabinets to facilitate the recycling of larger items.

How to use

1. When opening Walmart's online platform, consumers will see that the platform provides a "FREE PICKUP TODAY" option for many products. For example, a Hatchimals magic egg has a self-pickup option and free 2-day delivery, but free shipping is only available when the order is over $35, while there is no minimum order requirement for free self-pickup. Consumers can also check whether the item is in stock at a nearby Walmart when checking out. However, another similar product shows "Pickup not available" and cannot be picked up.

2. When the buyer places an order and chooses to pick up the goods by himself and completes the payment, Walmart will inform him by email that the goods can be picked up at the Pickup Tower in a local supermarket. At the same time, Walmart employees will pack the items according to the order and store them in the self-service pickup kiosk. The buyer comes to the Pickup Tower, enters the order number or scans the barcode on the phone, and can get the items within one minute.

3. There is no charge for consumers to receive the goods, but this service is only available when the order is at least US$30.

Features: There is a refrigerator and freezer in the Pickup Tower, and fresh goods can also be stored here.