Walmart.ca wins excellence award for groundbreaking consumer responsiveness

Retailer accelerates e-commerce strategy with website that lets customers shop on their own terms

MISSISSAUGA, ON, June 6, 2014 /CNW/ - Walmart Canada's online store, walmart.ca, has won the Retail Council of Canada Excellence in e-commerce award for providing groundbreaking customer responsiveness.  The award was presented this week at the by the Retail Council of Canada at it's 2014 Store Conference and recognizes walmart.ca as the first fully, responsively designed e-commerce site offered by a major Canadian retailer.

According to Simon Rodrigue, Walmart Canada's vice president and general manager for e-commerce, the new walmart.ca uses best-in-class technology to provide customers with a completely seamless shopping experience across all devices, from smartphones and tablets to traditional desktops and laptop computers. 

"Today's connected consumers demand an easily accessible and highly relevant shopping experience, anytime, anywhere, across any device." said Rodrigue.  "Our solution was to provide an experience that bridges the gap between the online, in-store and on-the-go-shopping experience. The newly designed site is the result of a global collaboration between Walmart Canada's e-commerce team, Walmart's Global e-commerce team, and global design and technology consultancy, Nurun." 

According to Rick Neuman, director of site experience for Walmart Canada, the new site has surpassed expectations in growing Walmart's online customer base, improving customer satisfaction with the online shopping experience, and driving increased operational efficiencies. 

"Walmart.ca drove a customer conversion rate of more than 20 percent in the first four weeks after the launch," said Neuman.  "Since going live in October the site has also seen a 98% increase in mobile orders, a 36 percent decrease in average page load times, and a three point lift in customer satisfaction."

Additional features of the new walmart.ca include:

• Integrated inventory systems that allow shoppers to see up-to-the-moment product availability and pricing, both online and at their four nearest bricks and mortar Walmart stores.
• Auto-localization technology that helps shoppers easily find information about their local (or preferred) store, including local store hours, flyers and pricing.
• To reassure customers there will be no hidden costs or surprises at checkout, estimated taxes, shipping costs and delivery dates are calculated and displayed to customers within a push-down shopping cart.
• A unified cart and checkout that provides registered walmart.ca shoppers with the ability to start a purchase on their desktops and later complete their transactions on a mobile or tablet device, saving time and reducing cart abandonment.
• A distraction free, single-screen checkout experience designed with touch devices in mind and improves conversion for tablet and mobile shoppers. Smart address auto-complete and postal code detection eliminates the time-consuming need for customers to enter all shipping information.

About e-commerce at Walmart Canada

Accelerating e-commerce is a key priority for Walmart Canada.  Walmart.ca is already the number-two website in Canada for visits and posted a 134 percent increase in online sales in the first quarter.  This year Walmart Canada we will invest $31 million in its e-commerce business to continue to enhance its site, warehousing and delivery services.  Walmart.ca currently employs more than 100 associates and will add 50 additional associates this year.  Walmart.ca doubled its online product assortment last year and will again double the assortment this year.  The site launched an online grocery assortment last year providing a broad range of dry grocery items and will continue to expand this category online.  Walmart.ca launched free shipping throughout Canada last year with no minimum order – the only retailer in Canada to provide this service.

About Walmart Canada    

Walmart Canada operates a growing chain of 390 stores nationwide, including 247 supercentres, serving more than 1.2 million customers each day. With more than 95,000 associates, Walmart Canada is one of Canada's largest employers and is ranked one of Canada's top 10 most influential brands.  Walmart Canada's extensive philanthropy program is focused on helping Canadian families in need, and since 1994 Walmart has donated and raised more than $200 million to Canadian charities.  Additional company information can be found at walmartcanada.ca, facebook.com/walmartcanada and at twitter.com/walmartcanada.

SOURCE: Walmart Canada

[email protected]