Walmart partners with smart lock maker August to test in-home delivery of packages and groceries in Silicon Valley
Walmart announced today it will begin testing a new service that will allow customers with August smart home devices, like the August doorbell and security cameras …
Context & Ripple Effects
Walmart is entering a race Amazon was reported to have started: back in 2016, Amazon was reportedly working with August and garage-access startup Garageio on in-home package drop-off. By partnering with the same lock maker for a Silicon Valley pilot covering both packages and groceries, Walmart is testing whether customers will let a retailer's courier open their front door.
The pilot matters because it feeds directly into what came after: August turned the concept into a commercial service, August Access with logistics partner Deliv, while Walmart scaled its own delivery ambitions from contract-worker grocery runs to the InHome service that stocks groceries directly into customers' refrigerators.
First-order effects
- Walmart gets a live test of unattended delivery in one US market, learning whether shoppers grant couriers one-time smart-lock access — and August gains a marquee retail customer validating its hardware as delivery infrastructure.
Second-order effects
- August productizes the experiment into the August Access service with Deliv, opening the same access layer to other retailers, while Walmart pushes delivery scale through contract-worker partnerships like the Uber-based grocery program across 100 cities.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the front door becomes contested last-mile real estate: retailers compete on inside-the-home fulfillment, and smart-lock makers — courted by both Walmart and Amazon — become gatekeepers whose trust model determines which couriers get in.
The trend: Retail last-mile delivery is moving from the doorstep to inside the home, with smart-lock makers emerging as the access-control layer both major retailers are racing to secure.