Walmart Tests Store-as-Warehouse Model to Speed Same-Day Delivery

Walmart is accelerating its eCommerce delivery strategy by transforming physical stores into localized fulfillment hubs, a move designed to shorten delivery times and compete more directly with Amazon’s same-day service. This shift highlights how Walmart same-day delivery, store fulfillment, and broader marketplace logistics are becoming central to the next stage of retail competition in the United States.

According to recent reports, Walmart is testing a model that uses backroom space in selected stores to hold products from third-party sellers, allowing orders to be fulfilled faster. The basic idea is straightforward: instead of keeping inventory only in seller-owned warehouses or Walmart’s centralized facilities, certain products are moved closer to end consumers by placing them in store backrooms. This enables quicker order processing and supports same-day delivery.

Sources familiar with the matter said the test is already underway in multiple Walmart stores in Dallas, Texas, a city the company has often used as a proving ground for new technologies and operating models.

Walmart’s eCommerce marketplace currently hosts around 500 million items from third-party sellers. These products remain under seller ownership until they are sold, while sellers pay the platform commissions and fulfillment-related fees. In the past, such goods were typically stored either in sellers’ own warehouses or in Walmart’s centralized distribution network. Most orders were delivered within one to two days, while seller-fulfilled orders could take even longer. By pre-positioning merchandise inside store backrooms, Walmart is making an important attempt to improve store fulfillment efficiency and reduce delivery time.

Walmart has said it plans to introduce this service in selected markets first, allowing some marketplace items to enter its existing pickup and delivery network before gradually expanding the program. At present, most of Walmart’s online sales still come from first-party merchandise. Its large-format Supercenter stores generally stock around 120,000 items, covering categories such as groceries, apparel, and electronics.

From a broader business perspective, Walmart’s eCommerce revenue has grown at an annual rate of roughly 20% since the company launched its online marketplace in 2009. Even so, it still trails its major competitors by a wide margin in marketplace scale. Data shows that Walmart U.S. marketplace sales remained below $14 billion in 2025, while Walmart’s total U.S. net sales reached $483 billion. By comparison, Amazon’s U.S. third-party marketplace sales totaled $333 billion. These figures make it clear why marketplace logistics and seller ecosystem expansion remain critical priorities for Walmart.

Analysts note that expanding marketplace operations is one of Walmart’s most important growth directions and also one of the areas where the gap with Amazon is still especially large. Industry observers believe Walmart is moving faster in this area in an effort to narrow that gap.

When it comes to delivery capability, Walmart sees its nationwide network of thousands of stores as a major competitive advantage. Because these stores are located closer to consumers, more than one-third of eCommerce orders can reportedly be delivered within three hours. That proximity gives Walmart a solid operational foundation for expanding Walmart same-day delivery.

This latest test has also been made possible by ongoing changes in Walmart’s supply chain system. In recent years, the company has continued to invest in warehouse automation, allowing first-party products to be shipped to stores in shelf-ready bulk formats. These goods can move directly onto store shelves, which helps free up valuable backroom space for third-party inventory.

In addition, Walmart is using artificial intelligence to determine which products are best suited for placement in store backrooms. Merchandise selection will vary by location based on local demand, with the goal of improving both inventory productivity and delivery efficiency. This suggests that future store fulfillment models may become increasingly data-driven, flexible, and market-specific.

Still, the model has clear limitations. Analysts point out that Walmart’s fast-delivery advantage is strongest when orders involve products already located in stores. If third-party items have not been integrated into the store network, rapid fulfillment becomes much more difficult. That means the success of this strategy depends not only on logistics execution, but also on how many marketplace sellers can be brought into the system.

Bringing third-party goods into store backrooms may help solve part of that problem, but store space is limited. Walmart must also preserve enough room to support the needs of in-store shoppers. Finding the right balance between online fulfillment and offline retail operations will likely become one of the key challenges in the next phase of expansion.

Overall, Walmart is strengthening its local fulfillment capabilities by turning stores into delivery nodes and trying to catch up with Amazon on shipping speed. This strategy is not only important for the growth of its eCommerce business, but may also influence how the retail industry competes in warehousing, inventory placement, and last-mile delivery in the years ahead. As Walmart same-day delivery, store fulfillment, and marketplace logistics continue to evolve, sellers will need to pay closer attention to where inventory is placed and how fulfillment networks are changing across the U.S. market.

For sellers shipping products from China to the United States, these changes also highlight the growing importance of choosing a reliable logistics partner. Forest Shipping is an international freight forwarder that helps ship cargo from China to the U.S., supporting cross-border sellers with shipping solutions that align more closely with today’s faster and more localized fulfillment expectations. As retail platforms continue to upgrade their delivery networks, efficient international transportation and smarter inventory planning will become even more important for sellers looking to stay competitive.