NEW YORK: Walmart will expand its grocery home delivery services to more than 100 metro areas this year from an existing six cities as the retailer steps up a fight against rival Amazon.com.
Walmart said on Wednesday the service would be rolled out to more than 40 percent of US households by the end of the year. Deliveries will cost $9.95 with a minimum $30 order and companies like Uber Technologies will provide transport. Other delivery companies will be added later this year.
“We will be pretty aggressive with it,” said Tom Ward, vice president of digital operations on a call with reporters.
The move will complement Walmart’s rollout of curbside grocery pickup, which is currently available in 1,200 stores and will be added to a 1,000 more stores this year. It also allows Walmart to compete with Amazon’s two-hour Prime Now service for shoppers of its loyalty program.
The expanded service allows the Bentonville, Arkansas based retailer to get its store shoppers to transact with the company online, where they spend twice as much. It also comes at a time of intense competition within the grocery space and follows Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods last year. Amazon has also expanded food delivery options from Whole Foods in six metro areas over the past month. Walmart’s other brick-and-mortar rivals like Kroger and Target have invested in similar services.
Online revenue growth slowed at Walmart in the most recent quarter, causing some analysts to question its strategy to compete with Amazon. Company officials said Walmart was still on track to increase its e-commerce sales by 40 percent this year.
Walmart expands home delivery in fight with Amazon
Walmart expands home delivery in fight with Amazon
India seals $3bn LNG agreement with UAE
- Leaders hold talks to strengthen trade, defense ties
NEW DELHI, DUBAI: India signed a $3 billion deal on Monday to buy liquefied natural gas from the UAE, making it the Gulf country’s top customer, as the leaders of both countries held talks to strengthen trade and defense ties.
The agreement was signed during a very brief two-hour visit to India by UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan for talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
They pledged to double bilateral trade to $200 billion in six years and form a strategic defense partnership.
Abu Dhabi state firm ADNOC Gas will supply 0.5 million tonnes of LNG a year to India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp. for 10 years, the companies said.
ADNOC Gas said the agreement brings the total value of its contracts with India to over $20 billion.
“India is now the UAE’s largest customer and a very important part of ADNOC Gas’ LNG strategy,” the company said.
The UAE is India’s third largest trading partner and Sheikh Mohammed was accompanied by a government delegation that included his defense and foreign ministers. The two sides signed a letter of intent to work toward forming a strategic defense partnership, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters.
Misri, however, said that the signing of the letter of intent with the UAE does not mean that India will get involved in regional conflicts.
“Our involvement on the defense and security front with a country from the region does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that we will get involved in particular ways in the conflicts of the region,” he said.
