Walmart Finally Announced Its Amazon Prime Membership Competitor

Walmart launched a new membership program this week called Walmart+ that brings together in-store and online benefits to save customers money.

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The long-rumored membership program finally becomes a reality and uses the company’s unique assets to make life easier for its customers.

Along with the power of its online presence, Walmart+ has a reach of over 4,700 stores, including 2,700 stores that offer delivery as fast as same day.

Members will receive unlimited free delivery from stores, fuel discounts and access to tools that make shopping faster for families.

Membership will be available to all customers on September 15 and it will cost $98 a year or $12.95 a month, with a 15-day free trial period.

In the future, the company will leverage its wide-ranging strengths to add additional benefits for members in a variety of services and offerings.

“We are a company committed to meeting our customers’ needs.”

Janey Whiteside, chief customer officer, Walmart

“Customers know they can trust us and depend on us, and we’ve designed this program as the ultimate life hack for them. Walmart+ will bring together a comprehensive set of benefits where we see the greatest needs from our customers and where our scale can bring solutions at an unprecedented value,” added Whiteside.

Walmart+ Benefits

The initial list of Walmart+ benefits is below. The list of benefits will continue to grow over time.

• Unlimited free delivery: In-store prices as fast as same-day on more than 160,000 items from tech and toys to household essentials and groceries. This service was previously known as Delivery Unlimited – a subscription service that allows customers to place an unlimited number of deliveries for a low, flat yearly or monthly fee. Current subscribers will automatically become Walmart+ members.
• Scan & Go: Unlock Scan & Go in the Walmart app — a fast way to shop in-store. Using the Walmart app, customers can scan their items as they shop and pay using Walmart Pay for a quick, easy, touch-free payment experience.
• Fuel discounts: Fill up and save up to 5 cents a gallon at nearly 2,000 Walmart, Murphy USA and Murphy Express fuel stations. Sam’s Club fuel stations will soon be added to this lineup.

These benefits come in addition to the retailer’s existing customer offerings like Walmart’s free curbside pickup, NextDay delivery and two-day delivery.

Walmart will continue to have delivery options with a per-delivery transaction fee so customers can choose the service that’s best for them.

Walmart+ Is Not A Prime Competitor (Yet?)

Amazon Prime took a while to grow into a full-featured membership service with many additional and valuable benefits besides just free shipping.

Walmart’s launch features seem to focus on benefits that provide value to loyal Walmart on- and offline customers with quicker checkout and discounted gas.

By comparison, it lacks online features such as digital music and video to be a direct competitor to Amazon Prime.

Therefore, it’s entirely possible that Walmart is focusing on a membership program that hopes to build on the large customer base the retailer already enjoys from its stores.