SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc is considering a radical plan to have store customers deliver packages to online buyers, a new twist on speedier delivery services that the company hopes will enable it to better compete with Amazon.com Inc.

Tapping customers to deliver goods would put the world’s largest retailer squarely in middle of a new phenomenon sometimes known as “crowd-sourcing,” or the “sharing economy.”

SAN FRANCISCO, March 28 (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc
is considering a radical plan to have store customers
deliver packages to online buyers, a new twist on speedier
delivery services that the company hopes will enable it to
better compete with Amazon.com Inc.

Tapping customers to deliver goods would put the world’s
largest retailer squarely in middle of a new phenomenon
sometimes known as “crowd-sourcing,” or the “sharing economy.”

, March 26 (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc
, facing growing competition for quick delivery of
physical goods from online retailers like Amazon.com Inc
, said on Tuesday it would start using its stores to get
Internet orders to customers faster.

While Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer by overall
sales, on the Internet its revenue is a small fraction of
Amazon’s, adding some urgency to its e-commerce efforts.

SAN BRUNO, California (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc will test the use of lockers in its stores to hold goods ordered online until shoppers pick them up, Neil Ashe, chief executive of its e-commerce unit, said on Tuesday.

The test, starting this summer, is one of many steps the retailer is taking to link its growing e-commerce business with its thousands of stores around the world, Ashe told a group of reporters at the company’s e-commerce media day in San Bruno, California.