After over a year of offering consumers free delivery, discounted prescription drugs and other benefits, the growth of Walmart+ remains in neutral, with nearly 1 in 10 consumers who have access to the service getting it through a free trial.
Amazon Prime, on the other hand, has nearly three-quarters of its subscriber base paying for their own subscriptions and only 3% using free trials.
As of last month, when holiday shopping was already getting underway because of supply chain concerns and rising prices, an estimated 129 million U.S. consumers had access to an Amazon Prime subscription, compared to just under 5 million consumers who had access to Walmart+ — fewer than had access at this point last year and matching a low point last seen in January, shortly after the service’s first holiday season in existence. Over 82 million have access to neither service, though, leaving ample room for growth.
PYMNTS’ proprietary data are based on population-based samples of 2,200 U.S. consumers surveyed each month between October 2020 and October 2021.
Related: Walmart+ Marks 1st Anniversary with Slow Subscriber Growth, Unfazed Executives
This comes as Walmart has rolled out a series of promotions in the past month to entice subscribers. Walmart+ members, for example, got early access to the retailers’ Black Friday promotions; and new subscribers were offered a cash-back promotion in late October tied to Amazon instituting a $9.95 fee for grocery delivery from Whole Foods.
Walmart executives have not elaborated recently on their expectations for the retailer’s subscription service or provided official metrics, but President and CEO Doug McMillon said on a conference call with analysts earlier this month that renewal rates were strong for Walmart+ members.
“Plus is a really important part of our growth strategy over the long term,” McMillon said.
Holiday Spending
Though Walmart+ has a smaller cohort of subscribers, a larger share of those consumers plan to spend more this holiday season. PYMNTS data show that 39% of those who subscribe to the box store giant’s service plan to spend more this year than last year, compared to 22% of Amazon Prime subscribers. Over 54% of Prime subscribers say they’ll spend about the same, compared to 39% of Walmart+ subscribers, and nearly 16% say they’ll spend less, versus 15% of those with Walmart+ subscriptions.
Perhaps surprisingly, 73% of Walmart+ subscribers also say they plan to make most or all of their holiday purchases online this year, compared to just over 58% of Amazon Prime members who say the same. Nearly one-third of Prime subscribers say they’ll make a significant portion of their purchases online; and less than 1% each of Walmart+ and Amazon Prime subscribers say they don’t plan to make any online purchases.
To be sure, just because a consumer subscribes to Walmart+ doesn’t mean all their purchases will flow to the Bentonville, Arkansas, retailer. Amazon, after all, sees nearly 50% of all eCommerce purchases and over 9% of consumers’ overall retail spend, locking the company in a dead heat with Walmart.
PYMNTS research, conducted in collaboration with Kount, found that 87% of consumers plan to shop online this holiday season, a 10 percentage point jump from last year. Additionally, younger consumers are more likely to increase their spending, with 31% of Generation Z saying they will be spending more on gifts this year along with 28% of millennials and 25% of bridge millennials.
Read more: Holiday Shopping Outlook Suggests ‘Amazon Christmas’ May Be Underway
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