Walmart prepares for battle with Amazon Prime

Walmart is creating its own yearly paid subscription program to directly compete with Amazon Prime.

According to Recode, the discount giant will begin piloting a membership program called Walmart+ as soon as March 2020. Walmart+ will serve as an expansion of Walmart’s current Delivery Unlimited subscription service. Delivery Unlimited provides free same-day delivery of online grocery orders from 1,600 participating Walmart stores for a yearly $98 fee. 

The retailer may keep the same fee or experiment with different price strategies. Walmart also may add exclusive perks for members, such as discounts on prescriptions and fuel and in-store mobile checkout.

Interestingly, Walmart also may reportedly offer text-based ordering as part of Walmart+. Text-based ordering was a feature of the retailer’s recently shuttered Jet black personal shopping service. When Walmart closed Jet black, it publicly said the service would “graduate” to join its customer organization.

A Walmart spokesperson confirmed to Recode that the retailer is developing Walmart+, but did not provide details. The standard annual Amazon Prime rate is $119, although some different pricing models and discounts are available. eMarketer has reported that Amazon Prime represents close to 40% of total U.S. e-commerce sales.

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