Wal-Mart appears to be willing to try almost anything to offer more goods and services to its customers. While the major retailer will not sell insurance, it did announce it is collaborating with AutoInsurance.com to meet the auto insurance needs of its customers. All customers have to do is click a link on walmart.com to obtain a list of competing quotes from a variety of car insurance providers (e.g., Progressive and Safeco).
In a CNNMoney article, Daniel Eckert, Wal-Mart’s senior vice-president of services talked about the ease of using the site which can retrieve information from a customer’s current policy and automatically fill in a good portion of the necessary coverage information. He emphasized, “We are always looking for ways to reduce complexity, increase transparency, and give everyday low prices to Wal-Mart shoppers.”
Auto insurance is just one part of Wal-Mart’s strategy to move into financial services. In addition to auto insurance, Wal-Mart offers money transfer via Western Union and MoneyGram, and Wal-Mart has also partnered with American Express to provide Bluebird to its customers. Bluebird is a debit and checking option that doesn’t require a monthly maintenance fee or minimum balance.
———–
Ryan Lahti is the founder and managing principal of OrgLeader, LLC. Stay up to date on Ryan’s STEM-based organization tweets here: @ryanlahti