If You Shop at Walmart, Prepare for This "Easier and More Convenient" Change

There have been a number of changes at Walmart lately.

Walmart has been moving forward with several different changes this year, including new augmented reality (AR) features for the Walmart app and even redesigned stores.

The retail giant also announced that it will allow shoppers to bundle a Walmart+ membership with its popular InHome Delivery Service, which allows you to have groceries delivered directly to your fridge. Prior to the July 6 announcement, you had to have two subscriptions, but now they are available "under the Walmart+ umbrella." You can reap the benefits of both for $138 annually—a $10 discount from the previous pricing model for separate memberships.

And while this perk is certainly convenient for dedicated shoppers, the most recent change continues to make things even simpler.

The retailer is working to assist a particular subset of shoppers.

Walmart is working to increase access for shoppers, particularly those who shop online. According to a blog post written by Rini Joshi, senior manager of product for Walmart, and Amit Vasant Bande, senior director of product, Walmart is expanding its Spanish search capabilities when online shopping.

Last year, the retailer introduced a search translation feature for Walmart.com and the Walmart app, which allows customers to search for products in Spanish. Currently, the website translates hundreds of thousands of commonly-searched items, using natural language processing (NLP) to detect the language.

For example, if you search "naranja," the Spanish word for "orange," the Walmart site will pull up different varieties of oranges, such as clementines, mandarin oranges, and more. But starting this month, you have the opportunity to opt in or opt out of this translation feature.

Here's how it works.

As outlined in the blog post, if you search "leche," the Spanish word for "milk" online, the system will detect Spanish and show you different milk products.

Beneath the search bar, there is a message, written in Spanish, letting customers know that they can opt out of the translated query with one click. After opting out, you'll then see products that have the word "leche" in their description, like "dulce de leche."

"This experience enables customers to search in Spanish for over 600,000 of the most commonly ordered items, making their shopping experience easier and more convenient," Joshi and Bande write in the blog post.

And the retailer also plans to take another step forward when it comes to translation capabilities. "This year, we will further optimize the Spanish experience, including the launch of predictive search and continual personalization and contextualization, with plans to launch a full end-to-end universal Spanish experience in the future," Joshi and Bande added.

Walmart made a change when the number of online Spanish queries spiked.

Walmart worked to improve access for Spanish-speaking customers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to COVID, a majority of these customers shopped in-store, but with stay-at-home and quarantine orders, there was a shift to online shopping. This led to Spanish searches on the Walmart app and website drastically increasing, with queries totaling five times the amount they had before COVID.

Joshi and Bande noted the retailer's focus on "improving Spanish search functionality," and as language creates a barrier when shopping, Walmart continues to improve its search capabilities.

"We have always focused on our customers, seeking to understand their needs, desires and wish lists," Joshi and Bande wrote. "And we will continue innovating to meet customers where, when and how they want to shop."