Walmart to use HomeValet’s SmartBox for deliveries in select Florida locations
Customers who order in-home grocery deliveries from participating Walmart stores can now have their items placed in a secure, connected outdoor box.
Walmart is partnering with home delivery technology startup HomeValet to offer customers at select Florida locations the option of having their deliveries from Walmart’s InHome service placed outside their home in a HomeValet SmartBox, with 24/7 availability. The temperature-controlled, secure and Internet-connected box enables unattended delivery of fresh groceries and packages directly to consumers' front steps (or wherever they place the box.) It has an uncooled side and a temperature-controlled cooler side with sections for fresh and frozen items.
[Read More: Pharmacy Innovator of the Year 2021: Walmart connects with communities]
Launched in 2019, Walmart’s InHome service delivers fresh groceries, everyday essentials and other products directly into customers’ homes, including placing items straight into their kitchen or garage refrigerator. The service also provides pick up for Walmart.com returns.
A trained InHome associate completes the delivery. Upon arriving at the customer’s home, the associate uses a one-time access code to unlock the customer’s door or garage through their InHome app, which pairs with smart entry technology.
The app notifies the customer at every step and a camera, worn on the associates’ vest, records the entire delivery, which customers have access to from their phones for up to a week after each delivery. Delivery personnel take health and safety measures including wearing a mask, sanitizing surfaces and locking up.
[Read More: Walmart’s CFO to depart]
Through HomeValet's mobile app and subscription service, consumers can customize, manage, monitor, and remotely control their Smart Boxes. Following a successful pilot conducted in May 2021, early delivery and a special introductory price are being made available to select Walmart InHome customers in January 2022.
Verified Walmart InHome customers serviced by participating Florida stores are the first to have the HomeValet option, with wider consumer availability expected later in 2022. HomeValet's Smart Boxes are available for pre-order. Smart Box pricing varies by design with a variety of customizable styles offered and financing options provided through Affirm.
The HomeValet app, which allows users to monitor Smart Box deliveries as well as control temperature to ensure secure package and grocery deliveries is also now downloadable in the App Store and Google Play Store.
[Read More: Walmart pilots drone delivery in Arkansas]
"The adoption of the HomeValet Smart Box will create a whole new category within the home appliance industry, which hasn't changed much since the introduction of the microwave in the 1970s," said Jack Simms, HomeValet co-founder and COO. "More importantly, HomeValet-powered, IoT connected Smart Boxes will put the control in consumers' hands, so home delivery is designed for the convenience of shoppers, not just retailers."
"The rapidly maturing e-commerce market exposed a vital need for increased package security and food safety in supply chain "last mile" delivery to consumer homes, which HomeValet is designed to solve," said John Simms, HomeValet founder and CEO. "By connecting consumers, retailers and couriers to a secure end-point outside consumers' homes, we enable automated delivery of packages, groceries and other goods, and reduce consumers' time burdens of home delivery and offer convenience and freedom, avoidance of logistics issues and capture large scale efficiencies improving the home delivery experience for consumers and retailers."