Walmart, like other retailers, has tried to muscle in on Amazon’s territory of being the king of online shopping. But one of the major reasons for Amazon’s success has been its Prime membership program. The most well-known benefit of Prime is free two-day shipping on orders shipped by Amazon, but it also includes special sales, video and music streaming, free reading materials, and more.
Walmart has tried a couple of different ways to siphon customers away from Amazon. One was ShippingPass, a $49 a year program which allowed members to get free two-day shipping. But about two years later, Walmart discontinued ShippingPass and lowered the free shipping threshold from $50 to $35. The two-day delivery was expanded to all shoppers and offered on most items.
Eventually, though, Walmart launched Walmart+, an expansion of their grocery delivery-from-store service. The company had played around with perks before and after launch, but it currently includes free grocery delivery in select areas on orders $35+, discounts at associated gas stations, the ability to use Scan & Go to use a phone to speed up shopping, and a free Spotify Premium trial for new Spotify users.
Late in 2020, Walmart+ added the perk that made the subscription a true Amazon Prime competitor: free shipping.
So while a Prime membership has a longer list of benefits, with the company having raised the rate earlier this year to $139 a year or $14.99 a month, Walmart+’s $98 a year or $12.95 a month is notably cheaper, especially for shoppers who mainly want a plan for free shipping.
But in recent weeks, Walmart met with executives from Comcast, Disney, and Paramount to add their video streaming services (Peacock, Disney+, Paramount+) to Walmart+. As Business Insider pointed out, plenty of providers (including cell phone companies) like to throw in streaming services with plans, but those are generally for a limited time like Walmart+’s Spotify subscription for new Spotify members. Amazon does it at a larger scale with their own produced content and licensed material.
Non-Prime members can subscribe to Prime Video as a stand-alone service for $8.99 a month, but as long as a person pays for Amazon Prime, Prime Video is included.
Well, Walmart has struck a streaming deal: Walmart and Paramount are joining forces. Starting in September, Walmart+ members can stream content on Paramount+ at no extra cost. This is the ad-supported Essentials plan, which is normally $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year.
Not much other information has been released, like if accounts need to share the same email or if it is possible to pay to upgrade to the no-ads plan. However, this does seem to be a permanent benefit, unlike the Spotify trial which was only good for new members.
I’ve said before Walmart+ has been worth it to me. The Scan & Go feature means I better manage my shopping trips, and my Walmart orders will be delivered on the weekend unlike Amazon. But like my Prime membership, it also includes perks I as a rural resident can’t take advantage of — mainly, free grocery delivery from the store. But when I first heard Walmart was searching for a streaming partner, I assumed it would be temporary. After all, costs are adding up with inflation and the company has been forced to discount products to make space.
Even though Q2 of this year was better than expected, the company is still canceling billions worth of orders to manage their inventory.
Anyway, I didn’t think Disney would sign with Walmart because they’re so big, but yeah, that would have been my #1 wish out of the three named. Peacock is nice since part of their content is available for free, and while there are shows I’d like to continue and movies to finally see, I am not currently motivated to go beyond the paywall. I had a previous version of Paramount+ (CBS All Access) for a while, and I found it rather limited. They have been improving since rebranding though. My cell phone provider has been touting a free 1-year membership to Paramount+, and I have been dragging my feet on taking advantage of it because I wanted to make sure I started it at an opportune time. But now once September rolls around, I have no excuse as to why I haven’t seen Sonic the Hedgehog 2. And hopefully this deal they struck will continue for a long time so that I can see the new Knuckles series and such.
Of course, neither Disney+, Paramount+, or Peacock have big anime catalogs right now, and combined with the fact there will be ads while watching versus Prime Video, it isn’t a perfect replacement for anime viewers. In addition, Amazon Prime has manga included as a part of Prime Reading, although most aren’t full series.
Still, Walmart+ fills niches that Prime can’t, and for anyone who has already been paying $49.99 a year for Paramount+ Essentials, getting those Walmart+ benefits like free shipping and discounted gas for an additional $50 a year should be very enticing. And while Paramount+ may not be the most in-demand streaming service (it’s hard to determine because Paramount releases the total number subscribers for all its streaming services versus for individual platforms), let’s hope Walmart+ can keep the price as-is for a long time so that people can get a more Prime-like experience at a lower cost.