Amazon Prime Day is one of the biggest sales events in eCommerce, with many sellers planning their entire year of inventory management around it.

Having observed its massive success, other major retailers like Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and PetCo have developed competing sales events.

For Walmart, that’s the Walmart Plus Week or Weekend, which is typically held around the same time as Prime Day.

Like Amazon’s Prime Day, the Walmart Plus sale starts by opening only to Walmart Plus subscribers. Unlike its competitor though, the sale eventually allows anyone who visits the platform to take part.

That means Walmart sellers enjoy two days of exclusive sales (the Walmart PlusWeekend) and then an additional week of discounts open to everyone.

In 2023, the event occurred from July 10-13, overlapping with the Amazon Prime sale. Although Walmart hasn’t announced when their Walmart Plus Week will be in 2024, it’s estimated to be July 8–11.

Adequate planning for this sale will ensure your eCommerce store is ready to offer discounts and maximize conversions without impeding sales on other platforms where you operate.

Let’s take a look at how you can prepare your inventory management and sales strategy to capitalize on Walmart’s upcoming event.

What is Walmart Plus?

Walmart Plus is the retail giant’s answer to Amazon Prime. It’s almost exactly analogous to Amazon Prime, with subscribers receiving free shipping and delivery on orders from Walmart.com, regardless of the order value.

At $98 per month, they also gain other perks, like early (rather than exclusive) access to sales, video streaming, and unique discounts on fuel and travel.

The program also reportedly has over 59 million subscribers, and they’re younger than Amazon Prime subscribers, with 60% falling between the age range of 18-44.

The Walmart Plus Weekend sale

Walmart launched Walmart Plus in September of 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, but the program’s first sale ran the weekend of June 2–5, 2022.

The event was a massive success, with the median shopping cart size surpassing the previous year’s average Walmart.com order and Prime Day shopping cart size.

In 2023, Walmart launched a second sale that coincided with the Amazon Prime Day sale. Dates were adjusted to July 10-13, running one day longer than Prime Day, so Walmart rebranded to “Walmart Plus Week” rather than just “Weekend.”

For this second event, Walmart Plus saw about only half the participation as Amazon Prime Day. Despite the less impressive turnout though, shoppers spent considerably more, with the average shopping cart totaling $200 (compared to $126 for that year’s Prime Day).

That worked out to an estimated $10.5 billion spent during Walmart+ Week — nearly double the $5.6 billion spent on the 2022 sale.

How to prepare for Walmart Plus Week

The Walmart Plus Week sale reaches nearly the same volume of revenue as Amazon Prime Day. While about half is in groceries, that leaves several remaining billion dollars up for grabs, so it’s imperative your business be ready to capitalize on this event.

Plan your inventory

Walmart.com shoppers tend to buy larger orders, with shopping carts averaging about $200. You can capitalize on that by focusing on bundles and kits, which drive up average order value and reduce fulfillment costs on your end.

Be precise in your demand forecasting as well to ensure you have enough stock on hand to accommodate these offerings.

Calculate your pricing strategy

Walmart advertises “deals up to 80%” for their sales events to entice shoppers. You won’t be able to sustain that across all your products, but you can seize the opportunity to discount items you have in excess and draw in customers.

Walmart also spotlights the highest deals, so you can propel your store and products to the forefront by offering the best discounts in your category.

So, calculate a pricing strategy that entices shoppers but also earns you healthy profit margins. According to Walmart, you’ll need a discount of at least 10% to secure a feature, even if that’s the only discount in the category.

Set an advertising budget

Another great way to promote your store on the platform is through Walmart Sponsored Search. However, you need to consider your advertising strategy from multiple angles before you invest in a particular tactic.

For instance, if you put a bundle or kit on sale and it still has enough of a profit margin to be relevant, it could be worthwhile to spend more to push it in Sponsored Search.

However, you might also be able to boost product placement simply by increasing the discount on your promotion and gaining a feature on Walmart’s deal page.

Ensure adequate fulfillment capacity

Sales increase dramatically over Walmart+ Week, so you’ll need a fulfillment strategy with robust infrastructure that can accommodate extra inventory to handle the higher demand as well as the greater number of customer service and return requests. Most sellers turn to a 3PL to take on that responsibility.

Estimate sales for the event so you can expand the amount of inventory you’re able to fulfill. That means you’ll need more inventory capacity with your 3PL, so make sure you use real-time inventory management if you sell the same products across multiple channels and carefully control inventory totals so you avoid overselling.

Tips for success over Walmart Plus Week

Walmart Plus sales are relatively new, but there’s a lot you can do to prepare for success.

Choose doorbusters to highlight your shop

Highlight the right products to drive sales to your store or shop. Bundles and kits are often a strong option here because they capitalize on Walmart customers’ higher spending habits to boost your average order value. Evaluate which items would excel as doorbusters to secure highlights and shop features.

Calculate your margins around sales to ensure you still make a profit on doorbusters. Keep in mind, though, you’ll have to provide free shipping with these deals, so craft your strategy carefully to prevent it from eating into your profits.

Deliver excellent customer service

As sales go up, so do returns. Walmart gives you a 48-hour window to respond to any and all buyer inquiries, so you’ll need top-notch customer service in place to handle higher occurrences of questions, complaints, and returns.

Consider assembling a special team to supplement your normal customer service personnel over the weeks following Prime Day and Walmart+.

Solidify your logistics

Analyze your regular Walmart sales volume and use that information to calculate what you need to ensure seamless fulfillment for Walmart Plus Week.

You’ll typically want to move extra inventory to your 3PL provider so they can manage this for you. A 3PL with two-day shipping, tracking information, and returns handling will save you a lot of hassle and expense, especially with their economies of scale, which reduce the costs of those services.

Additionally, Walmart’s Plus sale purposefully coincides with Amazon Prime Day. That means you likely won’t be able to rely on FBA to fulfill your Walmart orders, even if you already use FBA for multi-channel fulfillment.

The better option in that case would be to save your inventory allocation for Prime sales. On the other hand, if you don’t have inventory caps, using FBA for both can remove the burden of fulfillment and customer service from your shoulders.

Wrapping up — Ready your store for a revenue-generating Walmart Plus Week

The Walmart Plus Week 2024 is set to be a major event that sees billions in retail sales. Walmart shoppers are looking for the best deals, which means you have to calculate your margins carefully to craft discounts that draw in consumers while still turning a profit for your business.

Also, give special attention to logistics, promote your offerings according to your budgeted allowance, and ensure you have robust customer service in place to accommodate peak buyer demand.

Taking these steps will guide you toward a successful Walmart Plus Week that may even rival Amazon Prime Day’s numbers.