Wal-Mart Announces Free Shipping From Web site to Stores

BENTONVILLE, Ark. & BRISBANE, Calif. – Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. today announced the first phase of its Site to Store rollout. The service, which the retailer has been testing in select stores, offers free shipping to Wal-Mart stores on thousands of items offered through its website, Walmart.com (www.walmart.com). Today marks the beginning of the Site to Store rollout with more than 750 stores offering the service in the states of New Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, and select areas of Texas, California, Colorado, Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi. Wal-Mart will activate additional stores throughout the U.S. over the next several months and complete the national rollout to more than 3,300 stores by late summer.

The new Site to Store service provides customers with another way to shop Wal-Mart’s products and values, both in stores and online. Wal-Mart customers can now shop and purchase products online at Walmart.com, and have them shipped to Wal-Mart stores for free. Tens of thousands of online products are available through the Site to Store service, which complements the assortment of merchandise available in Wal-Mart stores, especially in Electronics, Baby, Home, Sports and Toys. Items arrive in stores within 7-10 business days after the order is processed, and customers receive an automated email to indicate their order is ready for pickup. Wal-Mart has been piloting the service in a limited number of stores since 2004, during which time Site to Store sales more than tripled.

“Our extensive testing of the Site to Store service allowed us to create a multi-channel shopping experience that brings additional assortment, convenience and value to our customers,” said Raul Vazquez, Walmart.com’s CEO. “We found that nearly two-thirds of the customers who used the trial service also shop in Wal-Mart stores on a weekly basis. Site to Store not only offers these customers access to thousands of additional online products, but also gives them the added convenience of picking up those items at the store during their weekly shopping trips without paying for shipping.”

Mike Smith, Walmart.com’s director of store integration, adds, “A key advantage of Wal-Mart’s online channel is the ability to offer a much larger assortment of products through our virtual shelf space, while our offline channel’s key strengths include our nationwide footprint with more than 3,300 retail store locations and a world-class logistics network capable of efficiently delivering online products to customers at our stores. Site to Store leverages each of these strengths to provide customers with a robust multi-channel shopping experience.”

Thousands of products carried online at Walmart.com are eligible for the Site to Store service. Specific Site to Store messaging is featured on eligible product pages to let customers know the online item can be shipped to a local Wal-Mart store for free. During checkout, customers can choose the Site to Store option, select the store where they’ll ship their items and even see the amount saved on shipping.

The Site to Store service also supports Wal-Mart’s sustainability efforts. Transportation efficiencies have been realized by consolidating individual shipments into pallets and fewer trucks. Also, system upgrades allow participating suppliers to consolidate multiple items of an order into single cartons, minimizing the total number of boxes needed.

The next phase of the rollout will include stores on the West Coast in the coming weeks. To learn more about Wal-Mart’s Site to Store service and to see a rollout map of stores, go to www.walmart.com/sitetostore.


About Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT)
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates Wal-Mart discount stores, Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and Sam’s Club locations in the United States. The Company operates in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom. The Company’s securities are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WMT.

More information about Wal-Mart can be found by visiting www.walmartfacts.com. Online merchandise sales are available at www.walmart.com.

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