Analysts say Walmart’s marketing efforts are aimed directly at rival Amazon, which tends to dominate online shopper demand on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In 2021, compared to 2020, Amazon’s sales increased despite a decline in overall ecommerce spending on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
said Andrew Lipsman, Principal Analyst, Retail and E-Commerce, Intelligence Insider. In the new ad, Lipsman said, “Walmart is probably trying to encourage people who shopped at Walmart offline or in stores over the holiday weekend to continue shopping at Walmart.com on Monday. .”
The company said in its second-quarter earnings call that growth at Walmart.com, including markets, is “improving.” His Walmart+, Walmart’s membership subscription program, has an estimated 16 million subscribers. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in an earnings call, “Total accounts are up about 9% from last year, and Plus membership penetration continues to rise.
Typically, the Monday after Black Friday belongs to Amazon, Lipsman said. Black Friday is both an offline holiday and a big game of online shopping. “Black Friday is Walmart’s day, Cyber Monday is Amazon’s day,” says Lipsman. “But with this latest communication, Walmart is about to board Cyber Monday,” he added.
“In general, Mondays during the holiday season are the days of the week when people spend the most online. Relatively speaking, there is always a Monday spike. It’s a high consumption day, and Walmart is really trying to bring Monday into e-commerce,” added Lipsman.
Consumer spending on Cyber Monday was $10.7 billion last year, down 1.4% from 2020, but it still ranks as the biggest online shopping day of the year, according to Intelligence Insider data. Adobe estimates that Black Friday online sales this year will grow by just 1% from last year, while Cyber Monday sales are projected to increase by 5.1%. The Monday following Thanksgiving has evolved into a significant start to the online Christmas shopping season as online shopping has grown rapidly in recent years.
The battle for online shoppers between Walmart and Amazon overlaps with Walmart’s efforts to beef up its advertising business. The retailer is trying to catch up to its biggest rival’s fast-growing ad business after recently announcing plans to integrate social media platforms like TikTok and Snap into its tech platform.
Walmart’s strategy is to try to acquire new customers at a faster pace. Retailers with very aggressive promotions for the holiday season have also cut the cost of Walmart+ memberships in half.
Publicis chief commerce officer Jason Goldberg told Modern Retail:
