Introduction
Walmart is expanding further beyond traditional retail by adding restaurant delivery through a new collaboration with Dunkin’. For manufacturers and suppliers selling to Walmart and Sam’s Club, this is more than a foodservice announcement — it reflects Walmart’s continued evolution into a broader digital commerce and last-mile delivery platform. The expansion creates new ways for Walmart to increase customer engagement, order frequency, and the number of occasions in which consumers interact with the Walmart app.
What happened
On September 3, 2026, Walmart announced that customers will soon be able to order Dunkin’ beverages and meals directly through the Walmart app and Walmart.com. The service will initially launch through approximately 150 Dunkin’ restaurants located inside Walmart stores, with plans to expand to the majority of Dunkin’s roughly 10,000 U.S. locations outside Walmart stores. Walmart will use its existing digital ordering and last-mile delivery infrastructure to support the service.
Why this matters to manufacturers and suppliers
Walmart is becoming a broader commerce platform. Walmart increasingly wants customers to use its app for more than grocery and general merchandise. Restaurant delivery gives consumers another reason to open the Walmart app, increasing the retailer’s opportunity to capture additional shopping occasions.
Order frequency could increase. Restaurant purchases such as coffee, breakfast, lunch, and snacks occur more frequently than many traditional retail purchases. More frequent app engagement can create additional opportunities for Walmart to expose customers to grocery, consumables, and general merchandise.
Convenience is becoming a competitive advantage. Walmart is positioning its physical store network and delivery infrastructure as an advantage against restaurant delivery platforms and other retailers. Walmart says approximately 90% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart store, giving it significant infrastructure from which to expand local delivery.
Digital merchandising becomes more important. As consumers increasingly enter Walmart through the app rather than a physical store, suppliers must think about digital search placement, product imagery, ratings, availability, pricing, and promotional visibility alongside traditional shelf execution.
Basket-building opportunities may expand. Walmart specifically describes a future in which customers could order restaurant food alongside household essentials and grocery products. Suppliers with products that complement meals, beverages, entertaining, or convenience occasions could benefit from new merchandising opportunities.
Practical considerations for suppliers
Suppliers should view Walmart’s restaurant delivery expansion as part of a broader shift toward integrated commerce rather than as an isolated restaurant initiative:
Evaluate digital shelf performance: Review how easily customers can find your products in Walmart search and category navigation, including titles, descriptions, images, ratings, and availability.
Identify complementary occasions: Determine whether your products can logically accompany restaurant orders, such as beverages, snacks, desserts, condiments, paper goods, household essentials, or entertaining products.
Monitor omnichannel availability: Products promoted digitally must be consistently available locally. Poor in-stock performance can reduce conversion and eliminate potential add-on purchases.
Improve item content: Make sure product images, descriptions, attributes, and nutritional or usage information are complete and accurate across Walmart’s digital platforms.
Analyze digital versus store performance: Compare online sales, pickup, delivery, and traditional store POS to understand where consumer behavior is shifting.
Watch emerging merchandising programs: As Walmart integrates restaurant ordering with retail delivery, new cross-category promotional and recommendation opportunities could develop.
Plan around convenience missions: Suppliers should increasingly evaluate their assortment based on shopping occasions — immediate consumption, meal solutions, replenishment, convenience, and stock-up — rather than solely traditional retail categories.
Key risks to manage
Insufficient local inventory to support increasing delivery demand.
Poor digital product content that limits search visibility or conversion.
Failure to understand differences between store, pickup, and delivery customers.
Overlooking emerging cross-merchandising opportunities created by Walmart’s broader digital ecosystem.
Prime Perspective
Walmart’s expansion into restaurant delivery reinforces an important strategic shift: Walmart increasingly competes for the customer’s entire commerce relationship, not simply individual retail transactions. Manufacturers should evaluate their Walmart business through an omnichannel lens that includes store execution, digital visibility, inventory availability, delivery, and shopping occasions. Prime Sales & Marketing helps manufacturers connect these elements into a coordinated Walmart and Sam’s Club strategy designed to improve visibility, availability, conversion, and sustainable sales growth.