Economic upheavals continue, drawing focus to the big annual discounting events of retail archrivals Amazon and Walmart. Among members of their respective membership programs, PYMNTS has observed patterns that show clear consumer preferences around each.
The first-ever Walmart+ Weekend ran June 2-5, while Amazon Prime Day runs July 12-13 this year. To get a clearer idea of how members are using these programs, PYMNTS surveyed nearly 2,900 consumers in June, including 1,047 Walmart+ subscribers and 2,055 Amazon Prime subscribers of which 668 respondents participated in Walmart+ Weekend in June, and 730 participated in Amazon Prime Day in 2021.
The following data points give a sense of how the Walmart+ members shopped during Walmart+ Weekend compared to their 2021 Prime Day purchases to find strengths of these offerings.
Get the report: Walmart+ Weekend: Prime Rival or Trip to the Grocery Store?
With gas prices high and same-day delivery a good way for consumers to shift the gas expense to retailers, prices pushed the pandemic aside as the main consumer concern this year, with people deal shopping on everyday essentials, especially groceries, where Walmart holds a lead.
As the study stated, “inflation and fear of recession are compelling consumers to tighten their purses and shop for deals. Walmart+ members focus more heavily than their Prime counterparts on the necessities of grocery shopping and filling up the gas tank. PYMNTS found that 43% of Walmart+ members signed up to take advantage of same-day grocery delivery, while just 13% of Prime members did the same. Another 20% of Walmart+ members cited gasoline discounts as a motivator — a perk not offered by Prime.”
Walmart’s lead in groceries continues as its bright spot as Amazon gains in most other categories versus its big box competitor. We saw this in Walmart+ Weekend selling.
“Walmart’s function as an online grocery store came even more into the spotlight on Walmart+ Weekend, as 57% of Walmart+ subscribers who shopped during the program’s flagship event in June purchased grocery products, versus just 24% of Prime members who did so during Prime Day 2021,” the report stated. “This indicates that the biggest impact of Walmart+ Weekend was to incentivize members to stock up on groceries in advance, frontloading essential spending that was already in their budgets to capture discounts.”
Download the report: Walmart+ Weekend: Prime Rival or Trip to the Grocery Store?
