Walmart Grocery Delivery: 4 Things to Know Before Your First Order

When you shop at Walmart, you often think of the low prices, but delivery fees can get expensive no matter where you shop. I recently placed an order with Walmart grocery delivery to share my experience with you — and to give you some tips for grocery shopping online.

4 Things to Know About Walmart Grocery Delivery

The ordering process looks a little different depending on the store, so we’ll show you all the steps you need to complete a Walmart grocery order and how much this delivery service will cost you.

Table of Contents

• What Is Walmart Grocery Delivery?
• How Do I Get Groceries Delivered From Walmart?
• How Much Does Walmart Grocery Delivery Cost?
• Pros & Cons of Walmart Grocery Delivery

Each of these sections will give you the tools to decide if Walmart grocery delivery is right for you.

What Is Walmart Grocery Delivery?

Walmart grocery delivery lets you buy groceries online and, for a fee, get them delivered to your door. The delivery fee varies depending on whether you buy a delivery membership or pay per order.

When you place your order, a personal shopper from a third-party partner will pick your items, notify you of any substitutions or out-of-stock products and deliver your groceries during a time slot that you select.

You can use this map on the Walmart website to find out if grocery delivery is available in your area.

In addition to delivery, Walmart also offers grocery pickup for free at many locations. Read our full review of Walmart grocery pickup here.

How Do I Get Groceries Delivered From Walmart?

Walmart grocery delivery works by sending your order to a third-party personal shopper who picks your items and delivers them to you.

Follow these steps to place your first Walmart grocery order:

1. Create a Walmart Account

2. Choose Delivery and Your Time Slot

Once you’re logged in, you’ll see that Walmart defaults to grocery pickup, so you’ll have to switch it to delivery to see if the service is available in your area.

Click “Change” in the “Pickup from” box at the top of the page. A box will appear on the right side of the screen:  Select “Delivery” then “Add a New Address.” Enter your delivery address and any special instructions you have for a driver when they deliver to this address.

Then, if delivery is available at the address you entered, you’ll see “Delivery available” in green with a truck icon under the address.

If you plan to order right away, you should reserve a time slot now. Click “See times” near the top of the homepage.

Make sure you have “Delivery” selected at the top, then choose the date and timeframe when you want your groceries. The fee for delivery should be displayed next to each time window. But sometimes, that will say “$0” because of a free trial offer.

3. Go Shopping

Now you can fill your cart! You can browse items by category or search the website to find your groceries.

Since Walmart is a superstore, you’ll be able to get items other than just groceries delivered to your door. Scroll through the “Pickup and Delivery” menu on the left to see all your options.

As you shop, you can “favorite” products by clicking the heart icon next to an item. You can click the “Add items from your favorites” button in your cart to get your basics taken care of fast.

When you find something you want, click “Add to cart” and adjust how many of that item you want to order.

Walmart doesn’t have coupons like some other sites, but you can look for items labeled “Rollback” for reduced-price items. Always remember to comparison shop between different brands and other stores to ensure you’re getting the best deal.

Once you’ve placed your order, you can also scroll down on the homepage to see items you’ve bought previously. These items are under a section called “Reorder Your Essentials.”

You can remove items from your cart by clicking the number of items and then selecting “Remove.”

After you’ve added everything you want to buy, click “Check out” at the bottom of your shopping cart. I needed a minimum order total of $35 to use Walmart delivery, but this minimum may vary depending on your address.

4. Place Your Order

When you click “Check out” you’ll be taken to the online equivalent of the candy rack next to the register where they’ll try to get you to make an impulse buy.

You can avoid making these last-minute decisions by keeping your shopping list close by until you’ve completed your purchase. Click the “Continue to check out” button to finalize your order.

Confirm your delivery address at the top of the page. If you didn’t reserve a time or your time slot has expired, Walmart will prompt you to choose another date and time for delivery.

When choosing a time you’ll also see the delivery fee next to each timeframe. If the time slot you chose is still valid, you’ll automatically move past this page and onto payment confirmation.

Enter your credit card information here if you don’t already have one on file. If you do have a card on file, select it and enter that card’s security code. You can add EBT information or any promo codes on this page, too.

Finally, review your order. Confirm that your delivery address and timeframe are correct.

Below you’ll choose whether to allow the driver to leave your groceries at your door if you won’t be there to receive them. You can also give special instructions for dropoff. If you enter your mobile number and check the box below it, you’ll get texts about your order status.

Check that the correct card is being used for this order. Now you can choose whether you’d like to allow substitutions.

Substitution preferences make Walmart unique from other grocery pickup and delivery services because they allow you to specify the items you’d like substituted. Most other services only allow you to choose whether substitutions are OK for all items in your order or none at all.

Walmart promises that any substitution will be as good or better than the item you chose — at no extra cost. If you decide that you don’t like the substitution, you can request a refund for it. If a substitution can’t be made, you won’t be charged for that item.

After that, you’ll choose your delivery fee preference. You can choose a Walmart grocery monthly membership, annual membership or pay-per-delivery fee.

As of this writing, Walmart is offering a 15-day free trial for each of its membership options, but be sure to read the fine print before signing up for any recurring charges.

If you already buy groceries at Walmart more than once a month, a membership may be worth it. But only you’ll be able to decide what’s right for your wallet.

You'll find a full price breakdown of Walmart grocery delivery fees in the next section.

When you choose your delivery fee preference, you’ll see it reflected in the order breakdown at the bottom of the page. The breakdown includes the subtotal of your items, the delivery fee, taxes, promotional discounts if you have any and the order total.

Once you’re finished reviewing, click “Place order” and you’ll receive a confirmation email.

5. Receive Your Groceries

Depending on your communication preferences you’ll receive updates via text or email. Updates include your order confirmation, out-of-stock items and substitutions, delivery tracking and your final receipt.

Now you’ll need to be available to receive your groceries in the timeframe you selected. If you opted to have the delivery person leave your groceries outside the door, you’ll still want to take your groceries in as soon as you can because none of the groceries are insulated.

My order arrived slightly earlier than my timeframe. The quality of the food was mostly good: The yogurt I ordered was cold, but some of the produce was underripe.

How Much Does Walmart Grocery Delivery Cost?

Walmart’s grocery delivery costs differ depending on the type of membership you buy or if you choose to pay per delivery. If you want your order delivered in two hours or less, you can opt for Express Delivery for an extra $10.

Here are the delivery costs associated with each option:

I don’t typically shop at Walmart, so I chose the individual delivery fee of $9.95.

Tips are optional and separate from the delivery fee. Walmart does not automatically add a tip, but the email with your final receipt will ask if you’d like to give one. If you don’t tip, the next time you log in, you’ll be asked whether you want to tip on your recently completed order.

Other than the delivery fee and tip amount, you shouldn’t have any additional charges.

As far as product prices go, Walmart has the best policy that I’ve seen. The superstore promises that you’ll always pay the same price as you would in-store.

If your groceries are packed and delivered on a different day from when you placed your order, Walmart will give you the lower price between the two days. Walmart also charges the lower price on substituted items.

When I placed my order, the total was $47.22. After weighted items were selected and two out-of-stock items were subtracted from my order, my final total was $33.85. The $9.95 delivery fee was the only charge I could have avoided by shopping in-store.

Pros & Cons of Walmart Grocery Delivery

Walmart grocery delivery is a reliable service that brings essentials right to your door. Still, there are some drawbacks to ordering your groceries online. Here are the pros and cons that I experienced from using Walmart grocery delivery:

Pros

• Item Pricing: Walmart's pricing policy is the best one I've seen. It gives you the lower price depending on the day you order versus when your items are packed and the lower price on substitutions.
• Substitution Policy: Unlike other services, Walmart lets you decide whether you want substitutes for items you chose that aren't available. You'll also get an equivalent or better item for the lower price if there's a substitution available.
• Convenience: Walmart grocery delivery saves you time by doing the shopping for you. You can order from any device, receive updates and get your delivery without leaving your house. You may also be less tempted to make impulse buys. Plus, if you're the parent of a small child, you don't have that extra hassle of bringing them along or finding child care.
• Same-Day Delivery: With Walmart's Express Delivery, you can get your groceries in two hours or less once you've placed your order. You can also schedule your order in advance to receive it at a time that's convenient for you. When I ordered, there were tons of time slots available the same day as well as several days ahead.

Cons

• Delivery Fee: Whether you buy a Delivery Unlimited membership or pay per delivery, there's no getting around that extra charge. While it's not the highest delivery fee I've seen, it should make you think twice before choosing delivery.
• Grocery Quality: While the groceries I received were generally in good shape, some of the produce was underripe.

Overall, I had a positive experience with Walmart grocery delivery. The website and app are both easy to use and let you customize your order slightly more than other grocery delivery services Team Clark has tested.

Although some of my items were out of stock, the rest of my order arrived slightly earlier than I expected.

If you typically shop at Walmart more than once a month for groceries, you may benefit from Delivery Unlimited. But Walmart Pickup is free and you don't have to get out of your car. Also, check to see if another membership you have, like Amazon Prime, offers good prices on the items you want.

Have you used Walmart grocery delivery? Tell us about your experience in the comments below!

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• Shipt vs. Instacart: Which Grocery Delivery Service Is Better?
• Amazon Fresh Review: 6 Things to Know Before Ordering Groceries
• Walmart Grocery Pickup: What You Need to Know Before Your First Order

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