Walmart just unveiled its multipronged plan to win the holiday season
- Walmart is tripling its online assortment for the holiday season.
- This will be the first holiday that Walmart is offering its two-day free shipping policy with any $35 purchase.
- Walmart will also be focusing on stores, with events every few weeks and new demo areas where kids can try out toys.
Walmart has big plans for this holiday season. The chain is focusing both on in-store experiences and on bolstering its online presence as it gears up for the busiest time of the year for retail.
On Wednesday, it announced that it would be tripling its online assortment for the holidays, including doubling its toy department. That includes a number of new brands for the retailer, like Bose and KitchenAid, as well as exclusive items for sale only at Walmart, like a Frozen Ride-on Sleigh that it expects to be especially hot.
Walmart is also instituting its annual series of discounts - known as rollbacks - in stores and online, with about the same number as last year.
This holiday season will be the first with the store's new two-day free shipping policy that comes with a $35 purchase online, and the first with a discount tied to picking items up in store.
"These programs will be playing a big role during the holiday season," Scott Hilton, CRO for Walmart's US online business, said in a press release.
But Walmart isn't leaving its stores out of the fun. For the first time, Walmart will host 20,000 parties in supercenters across the country, centered around themes like toys, gifting, and entertaining. Three days of parties will be held in total. Walmart will also be setting up demo areas in the toy section for kids to interact with certain items.
The retailer also said that it hopes to keep hot toys, like the Fingerlings robotic monkey, in stores throughout the season. The goal, Walmart US' merchandising head, Steve Bratspies, said, is not to run out of anything.
"We think we did a pretty good job of jumping on [Fingerlings]," he said.