The holiday shopping season is getting a jump start in October with major sales events from Walmart, Amazon, and Target. And while all three retail giants are promising steep discounts, only Walmart is saying “no membership required.”
“Walmart Deals are open to all customers—no membership required,” the company said in a press release, though Walmart+ members do get a five-hour head start on the sale on October 6 at 7pm ET.
Amazon, meanwhile, said its sales event is “member-exclusive,” and Target is requiring shoppers to sign up for its “free-to-join” Circle membership to access promotions.
- Whatever the strategy behind Walmart’s messaging, the retailer is still driving shoppers to its membership program. On a recent earnings call, CEO Doug McMillon said income from membership fees was up 15% across the company in Q2, with Walmart+ seeing double-digit growth.
- Target also noted in its latest earnings that membership revenue grew double digits in the latest quarter.
- Amazon Prime membership also appears to be growing steadily, though the Federal Trade Commission is alleging some of these gains were made unfairly, claiming that the company “duped tens of millions of Prime customers by signing them up without their consent,” Reuters reported.
One consistent thread in all three companies’ messaging is a focus on faster delivery.
Target promoted that its paid Target Circle 360 membership offers perks such as unlimited same-day delivery on orders over $35, and Amazon said Prime members can access free same-day or one-day delivery on more than 300 million items.
And Walmart touted the availability of same-day, early morning, and express delivery to all customers.
This report was originally published by Retail Brew.
