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Walmart+ made its debut late last year, and its momentum has only been ramping up.
A new survey published by Deutsche Bank estimates that Walmart+ now reaches approximately 32 million US households. In June and July, about 25% of respondents identified as Walmart+ members, up from 19% in prior months. (Walmart did not respond to a request for comment.)
In with the new: “It’s a big deal for [Walmart] because historically they’ve not wanted to invest in loyalty programs. This was a huge departure,” Sucharita Kodali, principal analyst at Forrester, told Retail Brew.
“This speaks to the fact that sometimes you have to throw old orthodoxies out the window because they’re not relevant or they’re untrue...maybe it’s a culture of experimentation and change for Walmart that they probably had been less inclined to execute for a long time.”
Zoom out: Walmart and Amazon are competing for similar shoppers: 57% of survey respondents identified as Amazon Prime members (which are estimated to number ~150 million across the US).
- Roughly 86% of surveyed Walmart+ subscribers also have Amazon Prime.
That puts the pressure on big-box players. “If a significant part of your customer base is now in a paid loyalty program, you’re just further down on the list,” Kodali said.—JG