Walmart Counters Amazon’s Travel Offering With Expedia Partnership
Walmart is working with Expedia to offer Walmart+ members deals on travel.
The partnership, announced Tuesday (July 25), lets members book trips via the WalmartPlusTravel website and get discounts on hotels, car rentals and vacation rentals, with bookings powered by Expedia.
“We’re bringing together the ultimate savings membership and vacation booking site to deliver a first-ever travel-focused benefit for Walmart+ members,” Venessa Yates, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart+, said in a news release.
“Combined with our other benefits — including free delivery, streaming and savings on fuel — we’re creating a membership that saves customers time and money, whether they’re at home or having fun at their favorite vacation destination.”
Walmart’s collaboration with Expedia comes two weeks after Amazon announced a similar effort with Priceline during its Prime Day promotion.
As PYMNTS wrote at the time, Priceline already advertises its offerings on Amazon’s streaming and audio platforms, but its participation in the company’s Prime Day marks the first time Amazon has teamed with a U.S. travel company to offer travel benefits for this key sales event.
“We want to meet customers where they are. We know travelers are shopping on Amazon and booking travel with Priceline,” said Lesley Klein, senior vice president of marketing at Priceline.
Consumers flocked to both Prime Day and Walmart’s Walmart+ week this month. However, PYMNTS wrote earlier this week that data indicates that twice as many Amazon Prime members made purchases during Prime Day than Walmart shoppers did during Walmart+ Week, “showing the digital blind spot still haunting Walmart+ three years after launch.”
According to the study “Summer Deal Days 2023: How Amazon Still Dominates,” 40% of consumers made purchases on Amazon Prime Day, compared to 20% who participated in Walmart+ Week.
PYMNTS research also showed that Amazon Prime members were more engaged during the event, with more of them making purchases than the previous year.
Still, Walmart+ Week shoppers outspent Amazon Prime shoppers nearly 2 to 1 on the strength of groceries and exclusives. And the research showed that more than half of Walmart+ Week shoppers purchased groceries during the event, or at least twice the number of Amazon Prime members who did the same.
With the Priceline and Expedia partnerships, both companies are trying to tap into a travel market that remains hot as consumer spending cools in other areas.
Earlier this month, American Express CFO Jeff Campbell projected that spending on travel and dining by consumers should be up by double-digit percentages through the remainder of the year — with travel bookings now exceeding pre-pandemic levels.
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