Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart has over 10,000 stores that serve about 250 million customers weekly.
Stocking those stores for the myriad of products each location holds requires Walmart to have a sophisticated, sprawling logistics network.
In a bid to maximize logistics loads and routes for its stores, Walmart developed an AI-powered, logistics-focused technology, Route Optimization, that created efficiencies and reduced emissions for the company, which has a global footprint.
Walmart said the tech "avoided 94 million pounds of CO2 by eliminating 30 million unnecessary miles driven and optimized routes to bypass 110,000 inefficient paths."
The retailer's Commerce Technology arm is now offering Route Optimization as a software as a service (SaaS) to businesses. That's the second such SaaS that Walmart has spun out of its own internal processes. In April 2023, Walmart launched Store Assist as an offering to retailers focused on local fulfillment, including shipping, pickup, and delivery.
The Route Optimization service has planning for multi-stop routes; efficient trailer loading; adjusting to ensure on-time delivery; loading returning trailers to limit empty trailers; and providing logistics insights for operations managers.
“We have invested significant time, resources, and operational know-how into building solutions like Route Optimization, but that can be a barrier for many businesses,” said Anshu Bhardwaj, SVP and COO of Walmart Global Tech and Walmart Commerce Technologies in a news release. “By adopting our at-scale, AI-powered tech, businesses can eliminate the need and expense of developing their own technology, and instead focus on what they do best — serve their customers.”
