Walmart makes a major change to your delivery service

These days, the retail industry is pretty much unrecognizable compared to what it used to look like. 

Consider what the average American's shopping experience looked like a couple of decades ago. 

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Let's say you needed to buy a few things for your annual weekend of spring cleaning. You'd probably need to visit a big box store for things like a mop, wipes, cleaning solution, and sponges. 

Maybe you'd need to go to a home improvement retailer for a step ladder, since that dust collecting on your ceiling fans isn't going to clean itself. 

If you were cleaning out your closet, you'd also probably want to a visit clothing store (likely in the mall) to update your jeans, shoes, or summer wardrobe.

And if you were really feeling ambitious, you'd probably hit the grocery store, too, so you could prepare a few meals for the busy week ahead. 

All of this would involve you visiting at least four very different stores. And it would consume so much of your time, you'd probably feel lucky if you got around to doing your actual, planned chores around the house.

Retail is a changing beast

Fast forward a couple of decades and we've found ourselves smack dab in the center of a brave new retail world. 

Very few of us spend entire weekends running around from store to store. It's no longer necessary to devote hours perusing aisles and bins of inventory looking for our desired brand, style, size, scent, or any other category. 

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That's because most of us now get the essentials (and sometimes just the stuff we want) online. 

So, now, a weekend of spring cleaning can easily be planned for seamlessly; all we'd need to do is put in an order online from one of the retail giants like Walmart or Amazon. 

All the necessary supplies would arrive on our doorstep in a matter of days — or even hours.

Walmart makes another delivery change

Of course, a lot must go on in the background to have our goods reach us so quickly.

Online retailers are always updating their ordering, fulfillment, and delivery processes to ensure customers are getting the fastest and most seamless experience. 

Amazon has set something of a gold standard when it comes to shipping speed; about 60% of orders placed through Amazon are delivered on the same or next day.

But Walmart isn't far behind. 

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Walmart announced in mid-April that it's leveraging a new geospatial technology to better fulfill online orders. 

This process involves looking at areas of the country as pixels or hexagonal-shaped zones, rather than zip codes. 

In doing this, Walmart can better anticipate demand, plan delivery routes, and eliminate coverage gaps. It can also source from multiple Walmart stores.

"Rather than relying on traditional boundaries like zip codes, we divide large areas into smaller, more precise hexagonal grids," Walmart explained. 

"Think of it like pixels in a digital image — each hexagon is a 'tile' packed with real-time data such as slot availability, drive time, store capacity, customer demand and more. This allows us to adjust delivery zones with greater accuracy, ultimately serving more customers across the country."

Walmart says the delivery change is already expanding its service. It's added 12 million new households to its reach, or 93% of homes in the U.S.