Walmart is using autonomous carts at its first high-tech market fulfilment centre to enhance the shopping experience for customers.

The fulfilment centre is at a store in Bentonville, Arkansas and is powered by a proprietary storage and retrieval system named Alphabot.

Developed for Walmart by start-up Alert Innovation, Alphabot helps enable quicker, more efficient order picking. The system uses autonomous carts to retrieve ambient, refrigerated and frozen items ordered for online grocery. After it retrieves them, Alphabot delivers the products to a workstation, where a Walmart associate checks, bags and delivers the final order.

Walmart believes digitisation and connecting its store and supply chain assets end to end will transform fulfilment.

“This new order fulfilment system is truly game changing,” said Ryan Simpson, store manager at Store 100 in Bentonville. “Not only does it enhance the customer experience through quicker, more accurate online order fulfilment, it also provides us the runway to continue growing our business now and in the future.”

The centre should significantly increase the number of orders the store is able to fulfil in a day, promising faster fulfilment with lower substitutions. It also improves the in-store shopping experience by freeing up associates to help customers shopping in-store.

In addition, working with the Alphabot system presents new leadership jobs in stores, such as the newly created market fulfilment centre lead, and opportunities to learn and teach new tech-forward skills.

“I feel confident that the items our associates are looking for are going to be there when a customer wants them,” said Gilbert Giron, a digital team lead at Walmart. “That makes me feel good, because I know our team is providing our customers with great service.”

At the foundation of the centre is Walmart’s use of technology to transform its stores.

“We’re innovating towards an even better shopping experience every day, and on every platform,” said Prathibha Rajashekar, senior vice president at Walmart. “To help our customers and associates live better, we’re using technology to help them save time. That leads to improved experiences for everyone, no matter how they shop, and moves our entire business forward in the process.”

The leadership team at Store 100 celebrated the opening with a donation of $15,000 distributed among Bentonville High School, Bentonville West High School and Bentonville Schools Ignite professional studies programme.

The centre in Arkansas follows a proof of concept in Salem, New Hampshire. Walmart plans to continue opening market fulfilment centres in select stores in the coming years.