The giant Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer is adopting a strategy first suggested over seven years ago by Utahn Thomas Grimm, who at that time was serving as chief executive officer of Sam's Club.

At a speech at Weber State University, his alma mater, Grimm explained how he wanted to establish Sam's Club as a major online retail presence by using its then-465 membership warehouses as fulfillment centers - the place where customers could go to pick up their online orders.

"The members we hope to reach over the Net are almost identical to the members who now choose our brick-and-mortar stores," Grimm said at the time.

Fast forward seven years. Grimm no longer is at the helm of Sam's Club, which is owned by Wal-Mart, but the strategy he outlined is still around.

Wal-Mart early this month rolled out is new "Site to Store" service throughout Utah. The service allows customers to order products online at Walmart.com and have them shipped for free to a nearby Wal-Mart store.

"This new program is part of our efforts to become the premier multi-channel retailer," said Mike Smith, director of store integration at Walmart.com.

He said most of the products available on the Web site are unavailable in most stores. Those products normally available in Wal-Mart's stores are flagged so they are easily recognized.

Smith said that of 130 million people who identify themselves as regular Wal-Mart shoppers, two-thirds of them visit a store at least once a week. "So providing them with a convenient way to pick up their online purchases, with the free shipping, provides our customers with added value."

Wal-Mart, however, isn't the first company to implement what is known in the retailing industry as the "Pick Up In-Store" options, said Joan Broughton, spokeswoman for Shop.org, an arm of the National Retail Federation that represents online retailers.

"Companies that include Circuit City, Best Buy, Sears and REI have been offering that option for quite a while," Broughton said. "And what those companies have found is that their customers come to expect that service will be available to them."

She said the buy-online, pick-up-in-store option not only provides added customer convenience, it also makes good business sense.

A 2006 study by Shop.org found that 27 percent of online buyers who pick up their merchandise in a store will make additional purchases.

And that's been the experience at the Wal-Mart stores in other regions. "We've found that customers on average spend an additional $60 on purchases in-store when picking up their orders," Smith said.

And by offering online products that aren't normally available in stores, the retailers in effect are increasing the number of products they're offering their customers.

"A company's smaller-store locations can't always offer everything that their bigger stores carry, so this is one way to even out the availability of products," Smith said.

Also, by tracking the purchases customers make online, retailers can get a better sense of what products they should be carrying in their stores.

Smith said Wal-Mart's new Site to Store pickup is available in 27 Superstores and two discount stores in Utah. Ironically, the service isn't yet available in any Sam's Club locations.

"We are constantly evaluating the services at all of our stores, so that is a possibility" in the future, Smith said.

steve@sltrib.com