When it comes to retail memberships, Amazon is the leader, boasting 97.2 million household Amazon Prime members across the US, nearly three-quarters of the country’s total households, per our forecast.
- This year, Amazon Prime will bring in $21.86 billion in subscription services revenue, a 12.1% increase YoY, per our forecast.
- Part of what makes the membership program so successful is the way that it uses its members-only Prime Day sales events as a flywheel, with exclusive deals driving membership and membership driving sales.
Taking a page from Amazon’s playbook, retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target are using their own members-only sales events to build out their retail memberships.
- Walmart+ Week, which took place June 17 to 23, featured deals on delivery, travel bookings, gas, and others.
- Best Buy’s Member Deals Days event, which took place June 24 to 30, presented members with exclusive deals on TVs, headphones, appliances, and more.
- Target Circle Week, which took place July 7 to 13, offered members of its free loyalty program deals across toys, apparel, beauty, food and beverage, and other categories. The event also offered Target Circle 360 membership for half the usual price.
Walmart and Best Buy hosted additional sales days in July that did not require membership to shop.
- But even non-member-focused sales days can drive membership.
- Over a quarter (28%) of consumers that shopped Amazon’s Big Spring Sale (which did not require shoppers to be Prime members) signed up for Prime after the sale, according to data from CivicScience.
The proof: Walmart+ sign-ups grew by double digits in Q2 (when Walmart+ Week took place), according to CEO Doug McMillon.
- One-fifth of consumers (20%) shopped Walmart+ Week, up from 11% in 2022, per PYMNTS.com.
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Groceries were a major purchase among Walmart+ Week shoppers, with more than half buying groceries.
- However, shoppers who specifically signed up for Walmart+ to shop the sale were 2.3 times more likely to purchase travel services and 1.5 times more likely to purchase electronics compared with regular subscribers.
- Because of this, Walmart+ Week shoppers spent almost twice as much as Amazon Prime shoppers did during Prime Day.
Target’s Circle Week also drove membership and retail sales.
- Two million new members joined Target Circle during the July Circle Week event, said chair and CEO Brian Cornell during a recent earnings call.
- Two-thirds of Circle Week sales came from Target Circle members, according to Cornell.
While Best Buy’s comparable sales were down 2.3% in Q2, July was the best month of comparable sales in the quarter thanks to sales events, CEO and director Corie Sue Barry said in an earnings call.
- The retailer’s paid membership program also contributed to success in Q2, with new paid memberships continuing to grow YoY, said Barry.
- “Our paid members consistently show higher levels of engagement and interaction with comparatively higher levels of spend at Best Buy,” she said.
The bottom line: Retailers looking to build out their membership programs can use members-only sales events to do it, especially if they are strategic with timing.
- Walmart, Target, and Best Buy held their members-only events ahead of Prime Day this year, which may have led consumers to shop early and skip Prime Day altogether.
- Amazon’s share of total US sales during Prime Day has declined slightly over the past few years, falling from 60.0% in 2021 to 59.3% in 2024, per our forecast.
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