UNITED STATES - Walmart is once again doubling down on its efforts to retain its status as a retail juggernaut with a massive, nearly $1 billion, investment into renovating its existing stores across the country. As competition in the retail market only continues to heat up, Walmart is taking major steps to entice consumers with new and improved shopping accoutrements.

“Our primary goal is to save time and money for our customers and there is no better place for shopping and convenience than Walmart,” said Uli Correa, Walmart Regional General Manager for Texas, in a statement to Yahoo Finance. “We’re very excited about rolling out improvements and innovations in 2019 that fit into our customers’ busy lifestyles and make shopping even easier.”

In what it describes as customer-focused innovation, according to Yahoo Finance, the retailer plans to invest the almost $1 billion into renovations designed to save customers time and money by providing them options for how and where they shop.

Walmart will be expanding its grocery pickup service, adding the program to hundreds of stores across the country. The service, now including Walmart Voice Order, combines the convenience of shopping online with the ease of picking up groceries in-store, and at no extra cost. The retailer will similarly be expanding its grocery delivery service, for those shoppers who do not wish to visit brick-and-mortar locations.

The retailer has also introduced Walmart Pickup Towers—16-feet tall, high-tech vending machines that are able to fulfill shoppers’ online orders in less than a minute after they have arrived in store, reports Yahoo Finance. The process is simple, a customer goes to the Pickup Tower once their order is ready, and scans a barcode that is sent to their smartphone to retrieve the order.

Another addition will be autonomous shelf scanners which scan shelves and identify when stock levels are low, labels are missing, or prices are incorrect. The scanners also provide real-time inventory reports, directing personnel to areas of the store that need more attention.

Walmart has also employed a new system in store backrooms called FAST, which scans and sorts items automatically as they come off trucks to direct items based on priority and department, so personnel spend less time unloading and more time with customers.

Autonomous floor scrubbers are another innovation the retailer is introducing. The floor scrubbers use assisted autonomy technology to clean and scrub store floors.

Walmart will be strategically investing amounts determined by the state and number of stores the retailer plans to remodel.

• Arizona - $71.8 M, 14 stores
• California - $145 M, 21 stores
• Texas - $264.9 M, 54 stores
• Indiana - $96.1 M, 19 stores
• Pennsylvania - $83 M, 15 stores
• Florida - $173 M, 34 stores
• Maryland - $29 M, 10 stores
• Alabama - $69 M, 14 stores
• South Carolina - $45 M, 8 stores

Will consumers flock to Walmart in even bigger numbers to take advantage of these shopping innovations? AndNowUKnow will continue to report.

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