Reflecting on Two Years of Walmart GoLocal

By Lucy Tudor-Ralston, Senior Director, Growth, Expansions, and Operations

August 24, 2023  |  4 Min. Read  |  Insights

Walmart GoLocal is celebrating two years this month. To celebrate this milestone, we sat down with Lucy Tudor-Ralston, Senior Director, Growth, Expansions, and Operations, to talk about her reflections on the past two years and how Walmart GoLocal has evolved in service of our clients.

Why did you join Walmart GoLocal?

I joined Walmart GoLocal two years ago, shortly before we publicly announced Walmart GoLocal. We were starting to explore externalizing Walmart’s delivery-as-a-service capabilities. I was immediately interested because at the time, the world was still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and supply chain and last mile delivery were top of mind for customers and businesses. It was a global conversation. I was excited to be a part of it all and to work with our amazing leadership and associates.

What were your initial impressions, and how has the team evolved since then?

When I first joined, we had less than 10 people on our initial call to discuss this offering. Today, we have more than 100 people on our team who are all working to serve our clients and help them bring reliable, cost-efficient local delivery to their customers. The growth has been incredible, and we’re going from strength to strength.

It’s been incredible to see the types of problems we were solving for clients then vs. now. In the initial days, we were focused on operationalizing the business. Today, we’re looking to optimize and enhance our processes to best serve our clients and their customers. We’re always looking for ways to expand our services and offerings based on client needs.

What are some of the biggest opportunities you see for Walmart GoLocal and our clients?  

As we further diversify the services we’re bringing to clients, we’re focused on expanding our capabilities and becoming a one-stop shop for our clients and their needs. For example, our bread and butter has been small parcel delivery. We’re now moving beyond that and offer a range of services, from big and bulky delivery to delivery in two hours or less. We’re seeing more opportunities to get goods to different types of customers in different ways, like ship-from-store, DFC, warehouse deliveries.

What are your biggest learnings or takeaways from the past two years, and how is that informing Walmart GoLocal serves its clients?

Based on my conversations with businesses, there are two key takeaways. First, last mile delivery has been around for a while, but it’s still evolving and there’s a lot for businesses to learn. There are ways we can reinvent how we’re doing it and do it differently. For example, it’s not just about delivering the fastest; instead, it’s important to identify the right delivery promise for the right product at the right time based on customer preferences.

We pride ourselves on client service. Why is the client experience so important, and how is Walmart GoLocal thinking about this as we continue to scale?

We noticed pretty quickly that no single solution is a fit for every single business. We are focused on catering our services to best fit what our clients are looking for, and I’m proud of the team’s flexibility and commitment to bringing clients the best solution based on their needs. We receive consistent feedback scores of 9/10+, and our average on-time-delivery rate is 95%+. We’ve also stood up new support channels like our Walmart GoLocal Client Support Center, a dedicated support line clients can use for day-to-day, operational concerns. We’ll continue empowering our account managers and broader team to serve clients in the ways that make sense for their business.

Looking at the next few years, what is top of mind for you?

It all starts with client service. I remember when we launched our first client, and today we are launching new clients every month. We'll continue to focus on being a trusted partner for clients and helping them achieve their goals. Our growth and where we’re looking to go in the future really excites me. We’ve enabled millions of deliveries for clients, have delivery coverage across more than 18,000 zip codes, and continue to introduce new capabilities.

We’ll also continue adapting our services while delivering on what makes Walmart GoLocal uniquely positioned in the delivery-as-a-service space. Walmart GoLocal has the credibility that others don’t because we are purpose-built for retail. We’re bringing clients the best of Walmart’s retail and logistics expertise, and our clients can take advantage of that knowledge and resources to grow their own businesses. We’re focused on being a one-stop shop for businesses, whether they’re looking to scale delivery for the first time or optimize their e-commerce fulfillment operations.

None of this would be possible without our amazing Walmart GoLocal associates. What would you say to people considering working for Walmart GoLocal?

We’re expanding rapidly and are always looking for amazing talent who can help us build and scale this business further. At Walmart GoLocal, you can hit the ground running and contribute to building a start-up within the world’s largest company. I’m really excited about what we’re doing for Walmart and other businesses, expanding access to reliable, cost-efficient delivery. This is a great place for talent, and we want to see our associates shine and grow and make a difference.

For more information on Walmart GoLocal, visit www.walmartgolocal.com.