Walmart Unveils Holiday Plans: Invests in Pickup, Introduces Holiday Helpers

Retailer Lowers Prices on Thousands of Items and Expands Online Assortment

Walmart announced plans to deliver its trademark low prices for customers this holiday while meeting their everyday needs throughout the season. For the first time, Walmart is deploying an army of Holiday Helpers to better serve customers in the checkout line. The retailer has also dramatically increased the amount of products available through its Pickup service, launched thousands of rollbacks along with other great prices available every day, and will add millions of items to Walmart.com in the coming months.

“We are listening to our customers and looking for ways to simplify their busy lives,” said Judith McKenna, chief operating officer, Walmart U.S. “Whether our customers are checking items off their grocery lists or their kids’ holiday lists, we want to make their shopping experiences easy and fun. This includes having clean, fast and friendly stores, an easier check out experience and enabling customers to shop seamlessly through services like Pickup.”

Introducing Holiday Helpers and Bringing the Holiday Spirit
Starting Nov. 4, Walmart’s Holiday Helpers will be in stores dedicated to helping customers get through the checkout process faster. Holiday Helpers, ready with candy canes and smiles, will assist customers with finding the shortest line, open registers as needed and will even quickly grab items customers might have forgotten. During peak times, Walmart stores will increase the number of Holiday Helpers serving customers.

These Holiday Helpers will bring the holiday spirit to stores, which will be transformed into winter wonderlands this year. Customers will also enjoy more than 150,000 planned demos and visits from Santa who will make 23,000 appearances throughout the season.

Bringing More to Pickup
Pickup, especially same-day, is incredibly popular during the holiday season. During busy holiday shopping weeks, Walmart receives up to five times as many same-day pickup orders as compared to a normal week. Walmart has expanded the assortment available for pickup overall and has added tens of thousands of items in categories including apparel, seasonal décor, toys, and electronics for same-day Pickup. To facilitate a faster and easier pickup experience, the retailer is allocating additional Pickup staff including dedicated Pickup managers in every store for the first time.

Offering New Items, Exclusives and Great Prices – In Stores and Online
From an exclusive Disney Princess Carriage and a 3D Virtual Reality Drone to ugly Christmas sweaters, Walmart is stocking its shelves with the items it knows customers will be looking for including exclusives in every category. To kick off the season, the retailer has launched thousands of new rollbacks combined with tens of thousands of items available at low prices every day. For example, Walmart will offer a new Roku 32-inch HDTV for $125 in November and December, which is the same price as the retailer’s Black Friday offer last year.

“I can’t remember another year when I’ve been this excited about the merchandise we are offering customers,” said Steve Bratspies, chief merchandising officer, Walmart U.S. “It’s not just about one category or one item. Our whole store is going to be stocked with new, exciting items from hot toys to new electronics available at the best prices. We will win the season on price, from the first weekend in November to Black Friday and Cyber Monday and through those final weeks in December.”

Walmart has substantially grown its online assortment from roughly 8 million at the start of this year to 20 million today with millions of additional items scheduled to be added in the coming months. The retailer is also making its broader assortment easier to shop. Starting Nov. 1, Walmart.com will feature a top 20 list of items to help customers discover exclusive offerings, great prices and products they wouldn’t expect to find at Walmart.

For more information on Walmart’s holiday plan, visit http://corporate.walmart.com/holiday.

About Walmart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world save money and live better – anytime and anywhere – in retail stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, nearly 260 million customers and members visit our 11,539 stores under 63 banners in 28 countries and e-commerce websites in 11 countries. With fiscal year 2016 revenue of $482.1 billion, Walmart employs more than 2.3 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting http://corporate.walmart.com on Facebook at http://facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart. Online merchandise sales are available at http://www.walmart.com and http://www.samsclub.com.