Watch out Amazon–Walmart is preparing to announce a new membership program of its own that will compete with Amazon Prime. This is according to a report from Recode, which states that Walmart’s subscription–Walmart+–will cost $98 USD/year and include a lot of perks.
These include same-day delivery and discounts on gas at Walmart’s fueling stations. Subscribers will also get early access to deals, sources told the site, along with some kind of “video entertainment.” Walmart sold its streaming service, Vudu, in April 2020.
Walmart+ will formally launch later this month, according to the report. The retailer originally planned to announce it in late March or April, but the company pushed its unveiling back due to the COVID-19 crisis, the report said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a surge in Walmart’s sales, but the company still trails Amazon by a huge margin in terms of total e-commerce sales in the US.
Amazon also has a huge head start on Walmart, as Amazon Prime was launched back in 2005. A Prime membership now gets you much more than discounts on store items; it also includes access to Amazon’s original TV shows and movies. One of Amazon’s high-profile upcoming TV shows is a Lord of the Rings program that was recently cleared to resume production again in New Zealand.
