This is an IN·KluSo signal — structured intelligence produced by AI and validated by a credentialed industry professional. SCI score: 0.88. Channel: Walmart Intelligence.
Walmart+ — the retailer's $98/year membership program offering free delivery, fuel discounts, Paramount+ streaming, and mobile scan-and-go checkout — launched in September 2020 as Walmart's answer to Amazon Prime. The program has grown to an estimated 25 million members, making it the second-largest retail membership program in the United States. But 25 million is a fraction of Amazon Prime's 180+ million US members, and growth has plateaued in recent quarters despite aggressive promotional pricing and benefit additions.
The membership stall is not a marketing problem. It is a positioning problem. Walmart's core brand promise is "everyday low prices" — the assurance that Walmart is already the cheapest option, no membership required. A membership program that charges $98/year to unlock benefits implies that the non-member experience is somehow incomplete. This conflicts with the brand's foundational value proposition. Amazon Prime works because Amazon was never positioned as the low-price leader — Prime's convenience benefits (fast delivery, streaming) are additive to a marketplace experience. Walmart+ benefits feel like they should already be included in the Walmart experience.
▸ Walmart+ members: ~25 million (estimated, Walmart does not disclose)
▸ Amazon Prime US members: 180+ million
▸ Walmart+ annual fee: $98/year (vs. Prime $139/year)
▸ Key Walmart+ benefits: free delivery, fuel discounts ($0.10/gallon), Paramount+, scan-and-go
▸ Key Prime benefits: free 2-day delivery, Prime Video, Music, Reading, Photos, pharmacy discounts
▸ Growth trajectory: Walmart+ growth has flattened; Prime continues adding members
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The Delivery Economics
Free delivery — the headline Walmart+ benefit — is economically challenging for Walmart in ways it is not for Amazon. Amazon built its logistics network around e-commerce delivery from the ground up. Walmart is retrofitting a store-based supply chain for home delivery, which means delivery orders are picked from store shelves by associates, loaded into vehicles, and delivered through a mix of third-party drivers (via Spark) and emerging in-house capabilities. The cost per delivery is higher than Amazon's optimized fulfillment center model, which means each Walmart+ member who uses delivery aggressively may cost Walmart more to serve than the $98 membership fee generates.
The strategic value of Walmart+ is less about membership revenue and more about data and behavior change. Members who shift even a portion of their shopping from in-store to online create digital engagement data that Walmart can monetize through Walmart Connect advertising. Members also demonstrate higher total spending — an estimated 2-3x higher annual spend at Walmart compared to non-members. Whether this spending increase is caused by membership or merely correlated (high-frequency Walmart shoppers are more likely to both join Walmart+ and spend more) is the measurement question Walmart is still working to answer.
Walmart+ is not failing. Twenty-five million members paying $98/year is $2.45 billion in annual membership revenue — a meaningful number. But the program is not achieving the flywheel effect that makes Prime transformative for Amazon: the cycle where members spend more, which funds more benefits, which attracts more members. Walmart's flywheel stalls because the brand's core value proposition — you don't need to pay extra to get a great deal at Walmart — actively discourages the membership psychology that Prime has mastered. The path forward may not be competing with Prime on breadth of benefits but rather doubling down on the benefits only Walmart can offer: fuel discounts across 14,000+ gas stations, in-store convenience features, and pharmacy/health services that Amazon cannot replicate at physical scale.