How did Walmart+ Weekend stack up to Prime Day?

New data sheds light on the performance of Walmart’s just-completed members-only sale event, with comparisons to Amazon Prime Day.

From June 2-5, 2022, Walmart hosted Walmart+ Weekend, an online savings event exclusively for Walmart+ members. Only members had access to discounts, but Walmart also used the event to drive membership in the Walmart+ paid subscription loyalty program.

According to preliminary data from Numerator, the average Walmart+ Weekend spend per order was $69.75, above both the average Walmart.com order size ($64.99) and Amazon Prime Day 2021 ($54.17). Close to half (47%) of Walmart+ Weekend orders were placed for $100 or more (compared to 27% of Amazon Prime Day orders).

However, Walmart+ Weekend average orders per household (1.2) total was less than half that of Amazon Prime Day 2021 (2.9), and below the four-day weighted average for Walmart.com (1.6). More than eight in 10 Walmart+ Weekend shoppers (84%) placed only one order during the event. 

Numerator data also indicates orders placed during Walmart+ Weekend were focused on consumer packaged goods rather than general merchandise. Over half (59%) of Walmart+ Weekend spend was on groceries, followed by 7% on health & beauty products and 6% on household products.

Conversely, home and garden and electronics saw significantly lower share of spend on Walmart+ Weekend (5% and 6% of spend, respectively) compared to average Walmart.com orders (11% and 9%, respectively) and Amazon Prime Day 2021 (19% and 31%, respectively) orders. 

Interestingly, nearly three in four Walmart+ Weekend shoppers (74%) are also Amazon Prime members. Compared to all shoppers, the typical Walmart+ Weekend shopper observed by Numerator was 20% more likely to be an Amazon Prime member, 42% more likely to be rural, 17% more likely to be Gen X, and 16% more likely to be low income. 

Walmart+ Weekend verified buyer survey findings
Numerator based its Walmart+ Weekend data on observed purchase behavior from the Numerator consumer purchase panel, as well as verified buyer surveys of Walmart+ Weekend shoppers. Highlights from the survey findings include:

• Over two in five (43%) Walmart.com shoppers said they are subscribed to Walmart+. More than one-third (36%) have been members for one year or more, 55% joined in the past one to 12 months, and 9% are trial members who joined in the past month.
• Most subscribers (82%) plan to continue their Walmart+ membership, with only 2% planning to cancel and 16% saying they are unsure.
• Free shipping and free local delivery were the top two drivers cited as reasons for joining Walmart+ (83% and 76% of members, respectively), followed by everyday savings (29%), special savings events (26%), gas discounts (24%), mobile scan-and-go (21%), early Black Friday access (20%), and Spotify memberships (4%). 
• Two-thirds (66%) of Walmart+ Weekend shoppers said that inflation influenced their purchase decisions and responded by comparing prices elsewhere (19%), stocking up on sale items (15%), passing on deals that were not necessities (15%), not buying a planned item (16%), and switching to a different brand (13%).
• Walmart’s deal event lags in awareness compared to Prime Day, with 33% of Walmart+ Weekend shoppers saying they were aware of the event before shopping, compared to 94% of Prime Day 2021 shoppers who knew about the event beforehand. 
• Almost half (47%) of Walmart+ Weekend shoppers said the deal event was a contributing factor to shopping at that time, compared to 82% of shoppers on Prime Day 2021. 
• Satisfaction levels were higher for Walmart+ Weekend deals than Prime Day. Seven in 10 Walmart+ Weekend shoppers said they were extremely or very satisfied with the deals offered, compared to 60% who said the same about Prime Day deals. 
• Two in three Walmart+ Weekend shoppers (67%) say they are likely to participate in a future event, with over one-third (36%) saying they are extremely likely.
• Seven in 10 Walmart+ Weekend shoppers have shopped on a previous Prime Day, nearly half (47%) plan to shop this year’s Prime Day, and 25% made a Walmart+ Weekend purchase that replaced an Amazon order.
• More than one-quarter (27%) of Walmart+ Weekend shoppers said the deals were better than Prime Day deals, compared to 16% who preferred Prime Day deals. 

Launched in 2020, Walmart+ quickly became the second-largest retail membership program after Amazon Prime, with members spending 44% more annually at Walmart than the average Walmart shopper, particularly in grocery and baby categories.

Numerator’s full suite of purchase and share data from Walmart + Weekend will be available the week of June 20, 2022.