As Walmart considers using a crowd-sourcing approach to deliver online orders, Retail Week looks at the practicalities and implications of the move.

If UK retailers thought offering options including next day delivery or collect in store to online shoppers was challenging then Walmart is poised to inject an even more complex system into the market.

The world’s largest retailer is considering using a crowd-sourcing model to allow people to rent out space in their vehicles to deliver packages.

Walmart.com chief executive Joel Anderson said last week that crowd-sourcing is an option for the retailer to propel its fight against Amazon further. The grocer is looking to fight back against the etail giant by cutting transport costs and using its store estate.

The retailer currently uses delivery firms including FedEx to deliver orders to shoppers from stores and is trialling a service called Walmart to Go in five metropolitan areas for same-day delivery using its own vehicles.

Retailers have long-battled rising delivery costs in the UK and questions have been raised by commentators over whether the major grocers make significant profits in online grocery. Crowd-sourcing offers an option

But does crowd-sourcing really work? Centre for Retail Research director Professor Joshua Bamfield warns that there are numerous legal, regulatory and privacy issues involved. “I see the possibility of fraud and insurance issues as significant,” he says. “Developing a trained, efficient and well-managed model will be difficult.”

Justin Moore, sales and marketing director at delivery specialist CitySprint, adds: “While it is great to see a retailer exploring innovative ways of getting goods from store to home, I would be wary of using the concept of ‘crowdsourcing’ for delivery in the UK, even if a retailer got over all the legal barriers.

“When it comes to providing delivery options for consumers in the UK, whether for groceries or the latest fashion accessory, expectation and standards are extremely high and one poor experience can have a lasting impact on a brand.”

Bamfield believes that one route open to Walmart is to use affinity groups. “The person delivering the product has to have an affinity with that brand and ensure strong service in delivery,” he says.

Walmart will also face the considerable challenge of bringing the service to its food business. Delivering groceries at different temperatures has been challenging for grocers worldwide, let alone third party members of the public. “You can have local, cooling devices which drivers could drop off in but it would be complex,” Bamfield says.

Walmart’s decision to scope out the idea comes against the context of a raft of other multichannel projects at the retailer including the introduction of in-store lockers to collect online orders, revealed last week.

Like many retailers worldwide, Walmart is tackling the issue of combining a well-established store estate with delivering customer orders. It may be a challenge but judging by its global dominance, Walmart is the right retailer to take on the task.