Walmart to Open 4 New Strategically Located High-Tech Fulfillment Centers to Speed Up Deliveries

Walmart announced plans to build four new high-tech fulfillment centers to be opened over the next three years to support its growing online commerce operations.

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To date, the company already uses 31 eCommerce fulfillment centers and 4,700 retail stores to fulfill orders for online orders and these new high-tech centers will improve the speed of fulfillment while creating a safer working environment for its workers.

Walmart partnered with Knapp, a tech company specializing in intelligent fulfillment solutions, to develop an automated, high-density storage system for its new facilities.

The company has been perfecting the system at its Pedricktown, New Jersey fulfillment facility which enables Walmart to streamline a manual, twelve-step process into just five creating a wide range of benefits that include more comfort for workers, double the storage capacity, and double the number of orders the facility can fulfill in a day.

The four new next-gen fulfillment centers will especially benefit Marketplace sellers as Walmart will be able to reach about 75% of the US population within 1 to 2 shipping days from those centers alone.

When combined with its existing group of fulfillment centers, Walmart will be able to reach 95% of US consumers within 1 to 2 shipping days for millions of products available on walmart.com.

Walmart said the four next-gen dedicated eCommerce fulfillment centers play a vital role in its overall business as they will be strategically located to support its existing network of 4,700 stores and 210 distribution centers.

“Together, this system of fulfillment assets is optimized to get orders to customers fast and efficiently. In this way we show our customers they need to look no further than Walmart to get what they need, when they need it.”

David Guggina, Senior Vice President of Innovation and Automation, Walmart US

Walmart Announced Details for Three of Four Locations

The first new fulfillment center will be a 1.1 million-square-foot facility to be opened this summer in Joliet, Illinois at 3501 Brandon Road, which is about 45 miles southeast of Chicago. This center will serve the Chicago metro region.

The second new fulfillment center is a 2.2 million-square-foot facility scheduled to open in the spring of 2023 in McCordsville, Indiana at 5259 W 500 N, which is about 20 miles northeast of Indianapolis. This center will serve the Greater Indianapolis region.

And the third announced facility is a 1.5 million-square-foot facility scheduled to open in 2024 in Greencastle, Pennsylvania at 915 Ebberts Spring Court.

This center is located in the south-central region of Pennsylvania and will serve the metro areas of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, DC.

Walmart said the new facilities play an integral role in helping them serve even more customers and Walmart+ members with fast shipping on millions of items.

Fourth Location in Texas?

The company did not provide details of the fourth location. But one press image for its new fulfillment centers includes a drawing for a facility marked as Lancaster, Texas, which is southeast of Dallas.

The ‘Lancaster, Texas’ image appears to show a facility that roughly matches the Greencastle location, suggesting a similar 1.5 million-square-foot center that could serve the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metro area if confirmed.