Walmart (NYSE:WMT) just developed a vending machine for groceries. And it thinks it can do the same for other retail items as well.

Walmart Self-Service Vending Machine for Groceries

The automated kiosk is currently being tested in Oklahoma City. Basically, customers purchase their groceries online. Then Walmart employees pick out the items and pack up the orders, which are then stored in a kiosk in the parking lot. When customers arrive at the kiosk to pick up their orders, they enter a code and their groceries appear in less than a minute.

This has a few different benefits for customers, including less time spent shopping and the ability to shop 24 hours a day. But it also offers plenty of potential benefits for Walmart and other businesses that plan to capitalize on this type of model.

For one, a self-service model could allow businesses to operate with considerably less staffing. It could also make businesses more competitive by offering customers those features of convenience that they value.

Walmart’s new offering is part of a larger trend of self-service kiosks and other services. Redbox, for example, has disrupted the movie rental market in a very similar way. So small businesses don’t have to sell groceries to learn something from what Walmart is doing.

There are innovative ways to offer a variety of products in creative and convenient ways. And if you’re able to come up with a system that works, you could please customers and save your business some valuable resources in the process.

Image: Walmart

[“Source-smallbiztrends”]