Walmart takes aim at Amazon with half-off special on its subscription service
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Walmart (NYSE:WMT) ratcheted up the battle for subscription customers with a three-day pricing special on Walmart+ for new signups.
The retail giant is offering an annual subscription for Walmart+ half-off at $49 for customers that sign up between November 1 to November 3. Those new customers will also receive extended early access to Black Friday deals starting on November 7 in addition to the full suite of normal Walmart+ benefits for the year.
Last month, Morgan Stanley called out Walmart+ as a potential secret weapon for the Bentonville retail behemoth. The firm estimated that Walmart+ added almost 2M members in six weeks since an early September estimate. That marked the largest sequential increase since August of 2021. The membership total addressable market (which MS defines as current members + very likely to subscribe members discounted by 25%) was estimated at ~27M, also a positive inflection and new record. Analyst Simeon Gutman attributed the Walmart+ momentum to the recent addition of Paramount Plus with more than a quarter of respondents in a survey saying it was a factor. Notably, Gutman thinks that disclosing Walmart+ membership could be a positive catalyst for Walmart (WMT) stock. After putting pencil to paper, Gutman estimated that the standalone value for Walmart+ could be $45B. 
What to watch: The aggressive promotion for Walmart+ raises the stakes once again for the 2022 holiday shopping season. Many analysts think that Walmart (WMT), Amazon (AMZN), Costco (COST), and Target (TGT) continue to take collective market share from smaller Internet retail operators, mall stores, and discounters. Of note, the National Retail Federation will hold a media call on November 3 to release its forecast for 2022 holiday retail sales. The NRF forecast will be another key data point for investors sizing up Target (TGT), Best Buy (BBY), Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS), and Walmart (WMT) following the Amazon (AMZN) guidance shocker last week.