Walmart Easing Delivery Requirements for Suppliers

Walmart said this week that it is planning on easing its requirements for in-full and on-time shipments from suppliers.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Walmart said that it wants its suppliers to deliver shipments on-time 90% of the time and in-full 95% of the time, down from the 98% threshold the company set for both measures in 2020.

Vendors that fall short of the newly-established benchmarks will face fines worth 3% of the cost of goods that failed to arrive on-time or in-full.

Walmart last updated its on-time and in-full thresholds back in September 2020, when the organization expanded its requirements due to supply chain disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The recent policy changes come at a time when ordering patterns have begun to return to normal as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic lessen.

“We feel good about our inventory position as we begin this year,” said John Furner, the CEO of Walmart U.S., during a February 20 earnings call. “Store managers and associates have back rooms that are quite under control.”

Consumer-packaged goods companies were able to deliver 84% of their orders on-time and in-full during 2023, according to the supply chain visibility firm FourKites. Though that mark is up from the 77% average seen during the fourth quarter of 2020, it still fails to meet the 85% measure recorded during the first quarter of 2020 before the pandemic began, according to a study from Boston Consulting Group and the Food Marketing Institute.