Walmart Closes Innovation Lab, Bets Big on Drone Deliveries

Walmart is closing Store No. 8 and laid off some staff, crediting the incubator it had launched in 2017 with innovations that have transformed how customers shop at Walmart. In a statement to EcommerceBytes on Tuesday, a Walmart spokesperson said, “Since that time, we have stood up our Global Technology, Product and Design organizations that work alongside the business to innovate with speed – and the responsibility to shape the future of retail is now shared across the company.” A current area of innovation for Walmart is drone delivery. Two weeks ago, it revealed that delivery by drones was available for up to 75% of the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) population and claimed it had the largest footprint of any US retailer. Walmart’s Senior Vice President of Innovation & Automation Prathibha Rajashekhar said, “Drone delivery is not just a concept of the future, it’s happening now and will soon be a reality for millions of additional Texans.” Walmart also showed off tech innovations at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this month that included generative AI search; InHome Replenishment (which also uses AI); and a social commerce platform called Shop with Friends, which uses AR – Augmented Reality. Walmart also opened a new high tech fulfillment center at one of its stores last year. Walmart’s announced layoffs of 62 workers in Washington next month are related to the Store No. 8 closure, according to the spokesperson, who said the decision does not impact the company’s hub strategy. Walmart Global Tech associates sit in 15 technology hubs around the world, from Silicon Valley and Northwest Arkansas to Dallas and India, she said. Walmart had launched Store No. 8 after it acquired Marc Lore’s company Jet.com in 2016 for over $3 billion, a site once seen as an Amazon killer. Jet.com was appealing to Walmart in great part due to its founder – Lore had sold his previous startup, Diapers.com parent Quidsi.com, to Amazon 6 years earlier. Interestingly, eBay CEO Jamie Iannone had overseen Store No. 8 during his brief time as Chief Operating Officer of Walmart eCommerce, reporting to Marc Lore and John Furner. Two months after his promotion in March of 2020, Iannone left Walmart to rejoin eBay after an 11-year absence, becoming Devin Wenig’s permanent successor as CEO. Lore left Walmart in 2021. Note: Walmart partnered with Google parent Alphabet’s Wing subsidiary on drone delivery, seen in the following YouTube video.