Walmart plans to give away 20,000 Walmart+ memberships to new moms next month ahead of Mother’s Day.
The promotion is in partnership with the Pampers hospital gift bag program. Starting in May, patients who have recently had a baby can receive a reusable fabric bag, a sample pack of wipes and a one-year subscription to Walmart+ while supplies last, the retailer said in Monday in a press announcement. The upcoming holiday falls on May 14.
The Walmart+ annual membership is $98 and membership includes omnichannel benefits such as unlimited free shipping on eligible items with no order minimum, free delivery from stores, fuel discounts, in-store mobile scan and go, and access to the Paramount+ streaming service.
Walmart+ members also get access to early product releases and online deals, and they can make returns from home. Members also have access to limited-time offers on a variety of services.
Walmart+ launched in 2020. In October, CNBC reported that Walmart+ had between 11 million and 11.5 million members during the previous three quarters, citing an estimate from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. That’s about 25% of the company’s online shoppers, according to the report. CIRP estimates Amazon has 168 million Prime members or 70% of its online shoppers.
Walmart does not share metrics on its Walmart+ membership base. In a third-quarter earnings call, executives said Walmart+ membership is growing but they did not offer specific numbers, Retail Dive previously reported.
“Walmart+ brings together benefits that will help save moms precious time,” Seth Dallaire, Walmart’s executive vice president and chief revenue officer, said in an announcement.
As part of the promotion, Walmart is also highlighting celebrity mom motherhood hacks from Cardi B, Stephanie Beatriz, Janelle James and Jenny Slate.
This isn’t the company’s first big promotion of Walmart+. Ahead of last year’s holiday season, Walmart cut the price of an annual Walmart+ membership roughly in half to $49 for a three-day promotion. The company also gave Walmart+ memberships to its employees for free in March last year.
Mother’s Day-related spending was expected to reach a record high of $31.7 billion in 2022, up $3.6 billion from the previous year, according to the National Retail Federation. Greeting cards, flowers and special outings were last year’s top gift categories. And 27% of Mother’s Day shoppers were planning to give experience gifts, like concert or sporting event tickets last year, up from 23% in 2021. That’s the highest since the NRF began tracking the category in 2016.
