Dive Brief:

  • Symbotic, an automation technology company, has commenced installation of its first SymMicro system for e-commerce fulfillment in the back of a Walmart store, marking a step forward in the partnership announced last year between the two firms.
  • The system is projected to "come to life" in roughly six months, according to Richard Cohen, Symbotic's president and CEO, who spoke on an earnings call last week. Cohen declined to disclose the store's location but noted "it will become obvious pretty soon."
  • "We have a second site that will follow shortly after that," Cohen said. "And then that should trigger a bunch more sites once Walmart actually sees the system working."

Dive Insight:

Walmart's ongoing collaboration with Symbotic serves as a notable case of the retailer's broader investment in technology and automation to enhance supply chain resilience, expand e-commerce operations, and control costs.

In 2025, Symbotic announced it would acquire Walmart's advanced systems and robotics business, while Walmart agreed to fund the tech firm's deployment of pickup and delivery centers in the back of its stores for order fulfillment. As part of the arrangement, Walmart made a "contingent promise to purchase 400 automated systems," according to a Symbotic securities filing.

“We anticipate the synergy between Symbotic’s expertise and our nearly decade-long relationship in innovating the supply chain technologies to elevate customer service and rapidly advance our in-store Accelerated Pickup and Delivery capabilities,” Greg Cathey, senior vice president of transformation and innovation at Walmart, said in a news release last year.

The SymMicro system that Walmart will deploy is designed for rapid order fulfillment. Totes containing goods are retrieved from storage by autonomous mobile robots, known as SymBots, and transported to a pick station where an operator can process multiple orders simultaneously, per Symbotic's website. Each SymMicro station supports up to 550 picks per hour and helps reduce in-store congestion caused by e-commerce pickup operations, according to the company.

"For customers generally, we see Back-of-Store Automation as key to turning e-commerce into a scalable growth engine – one that can protect and strengthen customer loyalty, and enable profitable digital growth," Matt Buckley, vice president of communications at Symbotic, said in an emailed response to sister publication Supply Chain Dive.

Initially, Symbotic will "overbuild" the SymMicro to ensure it functions correctly, then the company will redesign it to be more compact and efficient to reduce costs, Cohen said.

"So we're going to overbuild this, but we probably won't build 400 of the version we're building now," Cohen said, referring to the deal for Walmart to purchase 400 systems. "But I think the one after this, we will."