It is difficult to imagine any retail or business conglomerate going head-to-head with the goliath that is Amazon Prime, but recent news from Walmart indicates a parry unlike its previous attempts to compete.
Right now, Walmart is working on Walmart+, a subscription program with designs to similar to Amazon Prime. The program’s first phase will start as essentially an update to its current grocery delivery program. While it isn’t a one-to-one comparison with Prime at this time, there is quite a bit of potential for Walmart to pursue.
A CivicScience survey of 1,800 U.S. adults showed 14% of Walmart favorables said they were at least somewhat likely to become a member of an Amazon Prime rival.
CivicScience data also showed a 12% interest from Amazon favorables, yet the largest percentage of interest came from people who do not like shopping on Amazon (20%).
Walmart favorables are 24% more interested in Walmart+ than the general population over 18, 11% of which were interested in Walmart’s version of Prime.
One way Walmart has distinguished itself from other retailers is through consistently low prices designed for lower-earning households. When CivicScience checked annual income, it was a surprise to see that salary didn’t factor into likelihood to join Walmart+.Â
But one factor that did make a difference was parental status. Parents are nearly twice as interest in Walmart+ than non-parents.
Walmart+ comes at a good time for the business. CivicScience data shows Walmart favorability rising but then falling over the past few years, while Amazon – whose favorability is higher among the Gen Pop than Walmart’s already – increasing quite rapidly.
And given the explosion of interest in grocery delivery, Walmart picked a good starting point to begin rolling out some bigger plays against Amazon.