Walmart Just Made a Major Change to Holiday Delivery

The holiday shopping season is officially in full swing, and Walmart, the world's largest retailer by revenue, it making changes. Each season, major retailers such as Walmart try to make the holiday season a little less stressful, by making pickup and deliveries run smoothly. Now, with so much online shopping, a smooth delivery service is even more crucial.

The National Retail Federation projects that retail sales in November and December will grow between 3.7 percent and 4.2 percent over 2024. "That translates to total spending between $1.01 trillion and $1.02 trillion," they add. "By comparison, last year's holiday sales rose 4.3% over 2023 to reach $976.1 billion."

So, it's shaping up to be a busy holiday shopping season, and one way Walmart is dealing with that is by implementing a new delivery policy in a major market that's never had it before. Walmart operates more than 10,750 stores in 19 countries, according to the company, and in the U.S., 90 percent of the population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart store.

A Change for Walmart

On Wednesday, Dec. 3, launched its first drone delivery in the metro Atlanta, Georgia, area, according to a news release from the company. Back in June, Walmart announced that it would be expanding its existing drone delivery service, which had only been running in two cities.

Walmart says the drone delivery service is a more convenient, faster way to get items directly to the customer. Walmart has partnered with the drone company Wing for the move. Walmart first began testing drone delivery in 2020, so it's been a long time coming.

So, starting on Dec. 3, the drone delivery service will be available in six stores in the metro Atlanta area, including Georgia stores in Woodstock, Conyers, Hiram, Dallas, McDonough and Loganville. It was already available at stores in the Dallas, Texas, and Bentonville, Arkansas, areas.

Walmart also says it plans to start drone delivery in four other cities soon.

A Healthy Holiday Shopping Season

Americans are spending this holiday season, according to research from the National Retail Federation.

“American consumers may be cautious in sentiment, yet remain fundamentally strong and continue to drive U.S. economic activity,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement. Shay added that they "remain bullish about the holiday shopping season and expect that consumers will continue to seek savings in nonessential categories to be able to spend on gifts for loved ones."

NRF Chief Economist and Executive Director of Research Mark Mathews added that tariffs remain a factor. "The economy has continued to show surprising resilience in a year marked by trade uncertainty and persistent inflation," he said in a statement. "As tariffs have induced an uptick in consumer prices, retailers have tried to hold the line on prices given the uncertainty about trade policies."

According to the NRF, retailers are expected to "hire between 265,000 and 365,000 seasonal workers, in line with a slower-paced labor market." They add that "there were 442,000 seasonal hires in 2024."