Walmart Debuts Online Pet Pharmacy
Walmart Inc. is making it easier for customers to access quality pet care at reasonable prices by introducing its first online pet pharmacy for prescription medicines, as well as expanding in-store veterinary clinics and carrying what Kieran Shanahan, SVP retail-food, consumables, health & wellness U.S. ecommerce, called “a more wholesome assortment of pet foods.”
According to Shanahan’s blog post on Walmart's corporate website, customers can now buy prescription pet meds online and have them delivered directly to their homes. Walmart Pet Rx provides low-cost prescriptions for dogs, cats, horses and livestock from more than 300 brands to treat such conditions as flea and tick, heartworm, allergy, and arthritis.
Walmart works directly with veterinarians to receive and fill prescriptions, which saves busy consumers time, while the mega-retailer’s low prices and free two-day shipping on orders of more than $35 save them money.
Meanwhile, Walmart plans this month to stock its 4,500-plus brick-and-mortar pharmacy sections with the 30 most requested pet medications, enabling most customers to get a pet’s prescription the same day.
Additionally, the company’s number of in-store retail veterinary clinics will grow in the next few weeks, with nine new clinics slated to open in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in late May and June. Walmart intends to have 100 such clinics up and running over the next 12 months, from the 21 it currently operates in six states. According to Shanahan, the facilities “offer affordable, high-quality and convenient services to save customers as much as 40 to 60 percent on vaccines and minor illness packages and exams.”
As for the chain’s pet food selection, Walmart has added more than 100 new pet brands to its online assortment over the past year, including more premium and health-conscious brands like Blue Buffalo, Greenies and Hill’s Science Diet. The company has also developed more premium and “free-from” options for its value-priced private brands, Pure Balance, Golden Rewards and Vibrant Life.
Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart is No. 1 on Progressive Grocer’s 2018 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.
