Walmart just extended its Christmas Eve delivery hours

• Walmart just pushed its latest delivery window to 5 p.m. local time on Christmas Eve.
• The retail giant can now reach 95% of US households in three hours or less.
• The ultrafast service is part of a broader race to make shopping more convenient — and immediate

As Christmas approaches, Walmart is giving shoppers something pretty much everyone can use: a little more time.

Imagine you're just arriving to Christmas Eve dinner with your in-laws and your niece says she's been wanting a talking plush Bluey doll.

You find it in your Walmart app, place the order in a tap, and by the time dessert is ready, your gift is at the doorstep. (You can even get the whipped cream you forgot to bring for the pie, too.)

Such last-minute shopping options are becoming increasingly possible as major retailers make a big push into ultrafast delivery.

Case in point: Walmart told Business Insider exclusively that its shoppers will be able to place store-fulfilled express delivery orders as late as 5 p.m. local time on Christmas Eve — a full hour later than last year.

"More people are using Express Delivery to get their items faster, and December is when it truly shines," Walmart's chief e-commerce officer David Guggina said in a statement. "No one delivers for customers like Walmart, from the first Holiday deal to the final gift on Christmas Eve."

The retail giant can now reach 95% of US households in three hours or less, and the company has said that more than a third of shoppers opt to pay extra for three-hour-or-less delivery.

Those express delivery numbers jump by 2.5X in December compared with the year's average, the company said.

The company also told Business Insider that it recently rolled out a new "Get it Now" option in the Walmart app, which shows shoppers an estimated number of minutes to receive an item, and lets them place the order in one tap.

Walmart said earlier this month that it fulfilled its fastest Black Friday order in 10 minutes, with big increases in both the volume and speed of deliveries fulfilled from its stores.

But Walmart isn't the only player in the ultrafast delivery game: Amazon and Target are also racing to offer last-minute fulfillment options on Christmas Eve.

Target says customers can get orders within two hours via curbside or in-store pickup, or opt for same-day delivery for a $9.99 fee, with stores closing at 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

And Amazon will show an "Arrives before Christmas" message on items that can be delivered as late as Christmas Eve via delivery or one of the company's 25,000 pickup locations.