After launching in September of 2020, the Walmart membership program has nearly 10 million members, about one-quarter of Walmart.com online customers. Walmart doesn’t disclose numbers – the estimate comes from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, LLC (CIRP), which issued a report about Walmart+ this week.
The Walmart membership program is similar to Amazon Prime, which is estimated to have over 150 million members. It costs $12.95/month or $98/year and provides free online shipping for Walmart.com orders, free delivery from local stores for orders $35+, and early access to deals.
CIRP Partner and cofounder Mike Levin said the company’s data shows the Walmart membership program appeals to the best Walmart.com customers and helped promote more and more frequent shopping among those committed online customers.
However, Levin said, “We have yet to see whether Walmart+ membership promotes growth in Walmart.com overall. Walmart+ customers clearly spend more per visit and visit Walmart.com more frequently than their non-member counterparts. However, overall Walmart.com spending and frequency did not change significantly since Walmart+ launched.”
Walmart released earnings on Tuesday for the third-quarter of its fiscal year 2022. Walmart US sales grew 9.2% year-over-year, or 15.6% compared to the same quarter of 2019. Walmart U.S. eCommerce sales grew 8% for the quarter and 87% on a two-year stack.
Walmart said this week there were about 160 million items available in the Walmart eCommerce marketplace, up 21 million quarter-over-quarter. And, Walmart executive Brett Biggs said, “we certainly see a high demand for Marketplace sellers.”
One of the services the company is excited about is Walmart Fulfillment Services. “We can scale that business just about as quickly as we’ll be able to add capacity,” Biggs said.
Walmart has a lot of innovation and investments in the supply chain to add capacity for the overall network, he continued. “This certainly will include and support our Marketplace sellers and have a great seller value proposition as we look forward.”
And as for Walmart+, the company is enticing holiday shoppers to sign up by offering early access to deals, as advertised in the following TV commercial:
