Walmart will start delivering prescriptions to U.S. homes in as little as 30 minutes, a move that’s intended to grab a bigger slice of online spending and compete against Amazon.com.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer said the service includes new prescriptions and medication refills, which consumers can receive in the same order as groceries and other products. Prescription delivery will be available in 49 states by the end of January, with coverage of more than 86% of U.S. households.
For ill shoppers, “it’s not just the prescription that you want; it’s the comfort things” such as tea and chicken noodle soup, said Tom Ward, Walmart’s chief e-commerce officer. “This can be done into one basket.”
Walmart is stepping up its competition for health dollars against Amazon and pharmacy chains such as CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. Amazon said this month that it will open pharmacies in 20 new cities and offer same-day prescription delivery to nearly half of U.S. households next year. CVS and Walgreens both offer to deliver prescriptions to people’s homes, including same-day options. Many other retail pharmacies don’t yet widely provide same-day delivery.
Asked about competition, Walmart is “aware of the wider landscape,” Ward said. He added Walmart can leverage its fast delivery times, large network of stores and wide range of products to help address a key request from customers.
The service will be free for customers of Walmart+, which is the retailer’s paid membership program, and cost $9.95 per order for others. Walmart pharmacists and technicians will fill orders from stores, put medication in tamper-proof packages and hand them off to delivery drivers to drop off at homes.
Walmart, which operates one of the biggest pharmacies in the U.S., is offering the new service about six months after closing its health clinics citing high costs. The company said then that it will further build out its nearly 4,600 pharmacies and more than 3,000 vision centers in stores.
Walmart began looking into pharmacy delivery after more than half of its customers said in a recent survey that they wanted the service, according to Kevin Host, senior vice president of pharmacy at Walmart. Previously, the company offered prescription delivery via mail orders.
The company sees the majority of existing customers shifting over to the service, Host said, adding that Walmart would hire more employees to respond to the expected higher demand. New customers will be able to transfer prescriptions to Walmart from their existing pharmacies.
The prescription delivery won’t be available for medications that require refrigeration or controlled substances such as opioids.
— Jaewon Kang for Bloomberg with assistance from John Tozzi.
