Walmart puts brakes on Walmart+ initiative

Walmart has once again delayed the launch of its Amazon Prime competitor Walmart+.

It had planned to debut the subscription service in July, at a cost of $98 a year. The offering includes the likes of same-day delivery of groceries and general merchandise, discounts on fuel at Walmart gas stations, and early access to product deals.

Prior to that, the programme had a launch date of March/April. A Walmart spokesperson declined to comment on the latest delay.

Bad move

Attempting to imitate its arch rival Amazon is a terrible look for Walmart, Shlomo Chopp, Founder and CEO, Anchor Shops, argued earlier this year. “You had them out-positioned with physical locations and failed head to head, so now you base your strategy on a copy?” he commented.

“The question the Walmart exec team needs to ask themselves is not ‘how will Wall Street award us for attempting a proven concept like Prime’, but rather ‘how will it look if we fail at an imitation?’ You are a short drive from every shopper in the US and can deliver for cheaper like Target who decided to compete with Amazon by doing an end-around, not use their strategies,” he added.

Despite significant investment, Walmart’s website is not in the same league as Amazon’s and it hasn’t been able to use its stores for localised fulfilment. “They think Prime like icing will enhance a tasteless cake,” Chopp argued.

Amazon now accounts for nearly 40% of all online retail sales in the US, according to eMarketer, and Prime is a huge reason why. Walmart is in second place, with only a little more than 5% of the US e-commerce market.

“Keep on innovating (and Walmart has impressed with various cutting edge omnichannel projects in recent times) or start copying? That is the question. Walmart+ is a top priority for Chief Customer Officer, Janey Whiteside, according to sources,” Chopp commented.

“You can’t out-Amazon Amazon. This initiative has all the makings of an expensive folly.”