Walmart partners with both Uber and Lyft to deliver groceries

A pilot program for online grocery order delivery will begin in Phoenix and Denver.

Further the embedding of ridesharing into our daily lives is Walmart, who is partnering with both Uber and Lyft to deliver groceries placed online.

The pilot program was announced by executive vice president and COO of the retail giant's global eCommerce division in a post on the Walmart company blog. "We've been working on convenient new ways to make shopping easier for our busy customers and members," he wrote.

The program is kicking off in less than two weeks with Uber covering Phoenix while Lyft does the same for Denver. Customers order groceries online, staff at a nearby store gathers the items and calls an Uber or Lift driver, and loads them up for delivery to the customer's location. The move is seen as an effort to combat competitors such as Amazon.

Walmart already offers their own delivery service in 40 select markets at a fee of $7-10, and the charge for a ridesharing delivery is the same. Customers pay Walmart directly, rather than the driver. According to Business Insider, the service is an extension of a pilot program in Miami using Deliv to send orders from the Walmart-owned Sam's Club to customers.

The online grocery buying experience will be available in 14 more markets by the end of the month.