Walmart hopes the employees at its stores can also help bolster the retail giant's e-commerce capabilities.
The retail giant's U.S. e-commerce chief, Marc Lore, wrote on the company's website that it began testing a delivery program for associates at two stores in New Jersey and another in Arkansas.
The pilot program allows Walmart employees to sign up to deliver online orders to customers' homes on their own drives home from work.
Lore wrote that the trials enable the company to take greater advantage of delivery trucks that are already shipping goods between warehouses and Walmart locations for in-store customer pickup.
The program could both cut shipping costs and get orders to customers more quickly. Lore wrote that during the pilot tests, many orders are delivered the following day.
He also wrote that workers responded positively to the initial tests. The program is voluntary but allows workers to earn extra income without straying too far off their normal commutes.
Lore wrote that some employees reported finding faster routes home "thanks to the GPS built into our proprietary app."
"Our stores put us within 10 miles of 90 percent of the U.S. population. Now imagine all the routes our associates drive to and from work and the houses they pass along the way," Lore wrote. "It’s easy to see why this test could be a game-changer."
