With Prime Day hitting Oct. 13-14, the unofficial kickoff of a very different holiday season, sellers are geared up to take advantage of the massive shopping event, but the proximity to other mega events from Thanksgiving on may lead shoppers and sellers to choose one or the other vs. both. Still Prime Day 2020 is expected to break records.
Walmart+, the $98 per year subscription program the company insists isn’t competing with Amazon Prime when it is, will launch Sept. 15, offering free same-day delivery on 160,000 items. Monthly membership is $12.95, similar to Prime, and a 15-day free trial is available. Members of Delivery Unlimited will automatically revert to Walmart+.
After putting it off for four months due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Walmart plans to finally roll out its own $98 a year subscription program this month to challenge the outright dominance of Amazon Prime. It will reportedly include access to Walmart’s new two-hour grocery delivery service, deals and discount gas, Recode reported.
We had just heard about Walmart’s new fulfillment service competitive with FBA, when we learned the retail giant was launching a membership program a la Amazon Prime. Recode reported Walmart will begin testing the membership program as early as March, initially as a rebrand of same-day grocery service Delivery Unlimited.
Amazon is enabling Prime customers in eligible areas to shop millions of products on Christmas Eve, and receive them in time for gift exchanges with free same-day delivery if ordered by 9:30 a.m. local time. Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market purchases on Christmas Eve in those eligible areas offer free two-hour delivery.
Prime Day saw 175 million items purchased by Prime members over the two days, according to Amazon, eclipsing its 2018 Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales combined, while analysts pegged total GMV at $6 billion to $6.2 billion. See what other interesting statistics we found to paint a picture of the concocted “Christmas in July.”
Amazon just turned up the heat in the three-way battle for dominance atop ecommerce sellers, announcing more than 10 million items eligible for its new one-day delivery standard via Prime. This compares with 220,000 items available for free next-day delivery from Walmart, announced in mid-May, and 35,000 from Target ReStock.
Amazon Prime surpassed 100 million members in the U.S. in the fourth quarter, according to new data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), representing 62% of all Amazon customers. This is up from 85 million in July, with Prime members spending on average $1,400 per year vs. $600 for non-members.
In the midst of reporting a blowout first quarter, Amazon announced the first price hike for Prime’s annual membership since 2014, citing rising fulfillment costs and service value. Observers believe it won’t lead to any kind of dent in Prime’s 100 million members.