Walmart adds pet perks to help grow its membership program

Walmart Inc. is turning to furry friends to grow its membership program.

The retailer said it will add telehealth services for pets as a new benefit for Walmart+ users this year.

The offering, which represents the program’s first health care perk, is part of Walmart’s efforts to retain and add more users who pay $98 a year to get free online delivery and compete with rival company Amazon.com Inc.

When Walmart tested out the pet telehealth service through a partnership with online veterinary service Pawp, it became the highest redeemed benefit for the membership in 2023, said Venessa Yates, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart+.

Yates and her team examine the wide range of Walmart+ benefits such as cash-back travel rewards and streaming, and look at insights to see which perks matter to users.

About 75% of Walmart+ members have pets, making it a good fit for the retailer, Yates said.

For Walmart, the Walmart+ membership program is a newer business aimed at driving margins and brand loyalty.

The company hasn’t disclosed the number of members since starting the program in 2020 but said it continues to grow at a double-digit percentage in user count.

Industry estimates for Walmart+ range from roughly 10 million to 60 million users. The company also recently rolled out a discounted version for people on supplemental nutrition benefits, known as SNAP.

Walmart+ is still much smaller than Amazon’s Prime, which has about 180 million U.S. users.

It’s also competing with other retailers that have added gas savings and streaming benefits to draw in more users, betting that these consumers will be more loyal.

Kroger Co. and Walt Disney Co. are in talks to add Disney+ to Kroger’s membership program, Bloomberg News previously reported. Target Corp. rolled out its new paid membership program in April.