Walmart Inc. plans to buy some of the assets of a tech firm that operates a delivery service in which users pick up and deliver items for their friends and neighbors.
Srini Venkatesan, executive vice president at Walmart Global Tech, said in a recent LinkedIn blog post that Walmart's supply chain technology team will acquire assets including the talent and technology platform of JoyRun. The deal is expected to close in a few weeks, he said, but he didn't reveal the purchase price.
"This acquisition allows us to further augment our team and ongoing efforts to explore even more ways to deliver for customers in the future," Venkatesan said. JoyRun's drivers could complement Walmart's third-party delivery providers and its own Spark delivery service, he said.
Walmart has explored numerous ways to deliver online orders to customers. These include having employees make deliveries; using third-party services; InHome delivery; and now pilot programs testing autonomous vehicles and drones.
Home delivery is popular with customers, especially during the pandemic, but delivery costs the company more than other options such as curbside pickup.