Walmart’s members-only sales event is in the rearview, and Amazon’s Prime Day isn’t for another week, but that doesn’t mean the war between the two biggest retailers is on pause.For a limited time until July 18, Walmart is offering new Walmart+ memberships for $49 per year, or half off the usual $98 fee.If that date catches your eye, it’s because the timing front-runs Amazon’s Prime Day, which happens on July 16 and 17.
For 10 years now, Amazon’s annual deals event for Prime members has become a fact of American retail life — and one that has helped drive new signups for the company.Offering a discounted membership in the days leading up to Prime Day is another way that Walmart has been stepping up its effort to woo customers over from the e-commerce giant.Look no further than remarks from Walmart CFO John David Rainey, who said the company’s delivery orders have overtaken in-store orders in recent months.He also said Walmart+ members are starting to make more frequent orders that have smaller item counts — acting a little more like Amazon shoppers.Meanwhile, Walmart continues to aggressively expand its Marketplace of third-party sellers, following a strategy that has enabled Amazon to offer the mind-boggling range of products available on its website.And as it turns out, Walmart’s ongoing “store of the future” upgrades are helping too, as the company uses its fleet of 4,700 US locations to fulfill online orders.”You would expect the in-store benefit,” Rainey said last month, referring to a sales increase after a renovation.”But we also see that there’s an uplift in e-commerce sales in those areas where we’ve done a remodel.”Walmart is already making a lot of Target-style moves to win customers, and now it’s taking even more pages from Amazon.
