Walmart has launched an initiative allowing start-ups to pitch their technology to the retailer, culminating in an in-store trial.

The US supermarket giant’s latest initiative, entitled Technology Innovation Open Call, will allow start-ups to pitch their technology to the retailer in conjunction with a retail summit taking place in October.

The grocer will be accepting nominations from up to 250 retail technology start-ups, with up to 30 start-ups being selected to pitch to a selection of Walmart executives at the Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit.

This is the latest initiative from Walmart’s innovation hub Lab 415-C and will allow the winning start-ups to trial their technology in Walmart’s stores.

Walmart is investing heavily in its technology offer to gain ground from competitors Target and Amazon. The US retail heavyweight spent ÂŁ7.27bn on its information technology last year and plans to spend a further ÂŁ1.38bn on its ecommerce offer by the end of next year.

Its rival payment app to Apple, Walmart Pay, is also due to be launched in June.

Topics