Walmart extends Express Delivery to early morning hours

Early birds get the worm – and fast deliveries from Walmart.

Just in time for the March 10 switch to Daylight Savings Time, Walmart is adding a new component to its Express Delivery offering. Express On-Demand Early Morning Delivery now offers customers on-demand delivery starting at 6 a.m., earlier than ever before.  

Also starting in March, Walmart will begin delivering live bait from more than 3,000 stores, including as part of its early morning delivery service for anglers looking to catch fish when they’re biting.

The addition of early morning hours follows Walmart’s fall 2023 decision to start offering its Express Delivery service until 10 p.m. on orders placed by 9:30 p.m. at 4,000 stores across the U.S.

At that time, Walmart also began allowing Express Delivery customers to engage in real-time text communication with a personal shopper to discuss substitutions or add items last minute. (Walmart relies on a team of 170,000 personal shoppers to pick customer orders.)

"As we continue to innovate and accelerate, the message is clear: Shopping should be personal and as tailored to fit your lifestyle as those freshly-delivered work shirts," Walmart said in a public statement. "With Walmart's on-demand early morning delivery and a suite of other convenient options, we’re making sure you have what you need, when you need it so you can reclaim your time no matter what the clock says."

Walmart Express Delivery – a primer

Launched on a wide scale in May 2020, Walmart Express Delivery allows customers to order items from Walmart’s food, consumables and general merchandise assortment such as produce, pantry staples, everyday essentials, toys and electronics for delivery in 30 to 90 minutes. 

The Express Delivery service costs $10 on top of the existing delivery charge ($7.95 or $9.95), but there is no markup on item price. Members of the Walmart + subscription program, which costs $98 per year or $12.95 per month, only have to pay the $10 Express fee. The discounter removed a previous $35 minimum order requirement for the service in 2021.

Based in Bentonville, Ark., Walmart Inc. operates more than 10,500 stores and numerous e-commerce websites in 19 countries.