Walmart has introduced a new shopping service as part of its mobile app platform intended to let its customers return products purchased online in physical stores at various locations across the United States. The American retail giant announced that the Mobile Express Returns service will officially go live in November and will be available at more than 4,700 stores in the country.
The offering allows Walmart customers to return an item they bought online by clicking on the transaction and product in question within the Walmart app and initiating the return process according to the instructions provided by the firm. Customers will then be able to use the Walmart app to scan the QR code found on the card reader at a customer service desk of any Walmart store before presenting the item in question to the store attendant to wrap up the Mobile Express Returns process. According to Walmart, customers will then have to wait until the following day to see the refunds credited to their payment account. For now, the process only supports products sold and delivered by Walmart’s online marketplace, though the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant has plans to extend the service to products actually purchased at its brick-and-mortar stores starting early next year. Additionally, Walmart intends to launch a related returns mechanism for products sold and shipped by third-party vendors via its online marketplace in the near future.
The Mobile Express Returns service marks the latest improvement to the company’s mobile app which has been receiving plenty of updates in the past couple of months. Some of the previous enhancements Walmart rolled out recently include a free two-day shipping on orders that cost $35 or more for all customers, putting an end to its ShippingPass service that charged an annual fee of $49 for unlimited two-day shipping on Walmart.com. That service was launched in January, around the same time Walmart was reportedly testing an app that would let shoppers buy products in-store without going through a checkout line. Walmart says it plans to release more features for its Android and iOS app next year and will presumably share more details on its efforts to do so in the coming months.
