Free snacks, 9 a.m. delivery: Inside Walmart’s unique approach to the Nintendo Switch 2 launch
Video game console launches are often known for sprawling lines around big-box stores and busy midnight release events. And the Nintendo Switch 2 game console on June 5 was no exception, with lines around the block at places like Target and Best Buy. Walmart, meanwhile decided to try something new this time around and show off its delivery capabilities.
Walmart delivered every Nintendo Switch 2 console preordered by customers by 9 a.m. local time, David Guggina, evp and chief e-commerce officer for Walmart U.S., told Modern Retail. He said the vast majority of deliveries were actually done by 7 a.m. Customers didn’t have to pay extra for the Express Delivery, or delivery in three hours or less.
“This really was the first time for a pre-launch that we utilized our omnichannel capabilities around Express Delivery and really being able to show up for customers in a unique way across the country,” Guggina said in an interview. “We want to highlight what we’re able to do when it comes to getting general merchandise and consumables to folks’ doorsteps and in their homes.”
Additionally, to the surprise of shoppers, some of whom shared on social media, the retailer included Coca-Cola bottles and Pringles chips alongside the consoles for free as an extra wow factor. Guggina said the company wanted to use the launch to bring awareness of how quickly the company can deliver food items alongside general merchandise.
“We wanted to bring a little joy and a little energy to this particular moment,” Guggina said. “This is a pretty passionate cohort, and we also often found a lot of them were new customers — folks that hadn’t shopped on our app and spent a lot of time on Walmart.com before. So we wanted to make sure that we could do something special for them — something that’s practical, thoughtful and customer-first.”
Walmart says it can deliver to 93% of the U.S. population in three hours or less, and Guggina said the retailer will soon be able to promise deliveries in minutes rather than hours. During the Switch 2 launch, the fastest order delivered in just five minutes, Guggina said, though he admitted a customer would need to live very close to a Walmart store for that to happen.
“We want to exceed expectations and raise the bar for what it means to be a big player in retail,” he said.
Other big-box retailers went different routes to appeal to gamers during the launch window. Target offered 20% off on character and graphic T-shirts as well as Nintendo and Pokémon toys from June 5 to June 7, plus additional deals on gaming furniture, mini-fridges, power cords and gaming accessories on its Target Plus third-party marketplace. Best Buy gave out collectible coins at midnight store openings to a limited number of shoppers.
Guggina said Walmart’s Switch 2 launch promotions grew from an idea pitched by a merchant to do something special for the launch at the retailer’s annual meeting at the start of the year, where store leaders, supply chain leaders and suppliers come together.
“We knew that gamers that were going to be buying the Nintendo Switch [2] are a highly engaged customer cohort, and we wanted to do something fun and different for them,” he said. “But as you think about it, moving forward, our ability and our footprint for fast delivery is something that we can reach into for a bunch of different types of events and scenarios and product releases, or just really anything that has a scarce release and limited supply.” He wasn’t yet able to share any future product launches the retailer may be working on.
Barry Thomas, a Kantar analyst and a former longtime Coca-Cola executive, said Pringles’ and Coca-Cola’s partnerships with Walmart on the Switch 2 launch come as more CPG brands have been trying to get involved in the gaming community, especially to reach young men or in hopes of going viral on social media.
He pointed to Mars, which just released Respawn, a new gum brand in partnership with Razer, a maker of gaming mice, keyboards and headsets. Additionally, Whataburger last year created a themed map for the popular multiplayer game Fortnite, and McDonald’s this year launched Happy Meals tied to the Minecraft movie, as well as Minecraft collectibles and trading cards for adults.
“For a lot of these snack brands, in the natural life cycle of a consumer, they fall out in their later 20s as health, weight and other things come into play; I think you have to be going top of the funnel and have lots of [consumer] recruitment,” Thomas said. “Brands are going to spend even more on [gaming] as a vertical, they’re going to do more with [game-streaming platform] Twitch — there will be more partnerships.”
This story has been updated to clarify that Express Delivery refers to deliveries completed in three hours or less, not two.