Walmart gets into the Sharing Economy

Walmart will partner with ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft to trial online grocery deliveries as it looks to speed up shipment times and better compete with rivals like Amazon.This is in addition to a very quiet Sam’s Club pilot that started in March with Deliv involving delivery of general merchandise and grocery for business members in Miami.Improving delivery times is seen as a way to appeal to busy inner-city workers who do not own cars and for whom grocery trips are often limited to what they can carry home. Amazon already operates Prime Fresh, a same-day "fresh produce and grocery" delivery service who last week also expanded to London.Walmart said it will charge customers a $7 to $10 delivery charge for its new delivery service, and will also alert customers when their order is being delivered. Online groceries are a $10.9 billion industry in the United States, and the market is expected to grow 9.6 percent annually through 2019, according to a December report by market research firm IbisWorld. Groceries represent 56% of Walmart's overall annual sales.