Walmart Bundles Walmart+ and Sam's Plus at $120 a Year

Walmart started selling a combined Walmart+ and Sam’s Club Plus membership on Oct. 20 for $120 a year, $19 under Amazon Prime’s $139.

If you run an online store, this changes what your buyers expect from you at checkout. Every shopper who signs up gets free delivery, streaming and a gas discount for one flat fee, and they carry that bar to your store. I write about this at Ecommerce Paradise because margin is where independent stores get squeezed. A high-ticket owner cannot match a membership program, but you can decide how much shipping you eat, what you promise on delivery and how you keep buyers coming back.

Below: what Walmart announced, how the pricing got here, my read on what it means for independent stores, and five moves to make before the holiday rush. If you are still building your first store, start with my guide to what high-ticket dropshipping is and how to start.

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Walmart+ and Sam’s Club Plus Bundle Costs $120 a Year

According to Retail Dive’s Daphne Howland, customers can buy both memberships together starting Tuesday, Oct. 20, for $120 a year. The bundle trims nearly $100 for people who would otherwise sign up for each program separately, per Retail Dive.

Digital Commerce 360 reporter Brian Warmoth laid out who pays what. Existing Walmart+ annual members pay about $22 more per year to move to the bundle. Sam’s Club Plus members can add Walmart+ at no extra cost. Sam’s Club members on the basic tier pay $60 more per year to get both, per Digital Commerce 360.

Those numbers imply the bundle costs the same as Sam’s Club Plus alone. Sam’s raised its Plus fee to $120 and its basic fee to $60 effective May 1, 2026, News12 reported in April. Walmart is effectively handing Walmart+ to anyone already paying for the top Sam’s tier.

Walmart lists 26 perks across the two programs, according to Digital Commerce 360. Four show up only in the bundle: pharmacy savings, savings on optical and hearing care, early shopping access and an annual $60 electronic gift card for T-Mobile. Members also get a Peacock or Paramount+ subscription and 10 cents off a gallon of gas at more than 17,000 stations.

Walmart CEO John Furner said the company is “raising expectations for what a membership can deliver,” per Digital Commerce 360. Retail Dive adds free delivery from both Walmart and Sam’s Club, members-only prices on some items and 2% Sam’s Cash back at Sam’s Club.

Two things the reports do not give you. Neither publishes member counts, so nobody outside Walmart can say how many people the bundle will reach. And neither addresses Walmart’s third-party marketplace sellers, so what this does to their listings, fees or visibility is unreported.

Retail Dive quotes Brett Rose, founder and CEO of wholesale distributor United National Consumer Suppliers, calling the bundle “a direct shot at Prime.” Rose compared the $120 price to Prime’s $139. He also argued the two companies serve different needs and said the bundle is unlikely to pull Prime members away before the holidays.

How Walmart and Sam’s Club Memberships Got to $120

This is a membership arms race, and Walmart is not alone in it. Digital Commerce 360 notes that both Walmart programs have added partner perks to compete with Amazon Prime and Target Circle 360. Sam’s Club added Weight Watchers options this summer, and Walmart added Burger King purchase savings in 2024.

The strategy is bundling perks that have nothing to do with shipping. Streaming, gas and pharmacy discounts make a $120 fee feel like a deal even if the shopper never orders a package. The membership becomes a habit, and habit is what Rose says Amazon sells: convenience.

Walmart enters this fight from strength. Retail Dive reports that Moody’s Ratings recently named Walmart the biggest U.S. retail winner, citing its value offering and convenience. Digital Commerce 360 ranks Walmart No. 2 in its Top 1000 Database.

Gas prices matter here too. Retail Dive says prices remain above $4 per gallon in most of the country, which makes a fuel discount a bigger draw than it was a year ago. Amazon offered Prime members a fuel discount for July 4 this year, so the tactic is not new, just sharper.

I covered the holiday side of this fight when Prime’s October event came in at $9.86 billion, in my Prime Big Deal Days numbers post. Amazon also made its holiday return window permanent, which I covered in my post on Amazon’s Jan. 31 return window. Each move teaches shoppers to expect more from every seller.

The counterpoint is real. Rose’s view is that Walmart wins on low prices and immediate goods while Amazon wins on convenience and habit, so the bundle may not move many Prime households. One bundle also does not prove a shift in behavior. Wait for enrollment numbers before you treat this as a trend.

What a $120 Walmart Bundle Means for Independent Store Owners

This section is my opinion, not reporting. My read is that the bundle does not threaten a high-ticket store directly. Nobody buys a $3,000 outdoor kitchen because of a streaming perk. But it moves the reference point in a shopper’s head, and that is where independent stores lose margin without noticing.

Here is the mechanism. A member pays one fee and sees “free delivery” on every Walmart and Sam’s order for twelve months. When that person lands on your product page and sees a $149 freight charge, they compare it to zero. They may not even be comparing the same product. They are comparing the experience.

Run some hypothetical math. Say your average order is $1,800 at a 25% gross margin, or $450. If you absorb a $90 freight quote to offer free shipping, that is 20% of your gross profit gone on every order. If you raise the price 5% to cover it, you recover the $90 but you now sit above competitors who list the same item. Neither choice is free, so pick one on purpose.

The better lever for most high-ticket stores is a delivery promise rather than a shipping price. Freight costs are not coming down. I wrote about LTL rates running more than 80% above 2018. Carriers are also adding seasonal charges, which I covered in my UPS and FedEx holiday surcharges post. Your cost basis is rising while the consumer anchor falls.

Walmart is also building for large goods. I covered the company’s $300 million Ohio hub for furniture and TVs, and that is territory many high-ticket stores sell in. Put the hub and the bundle together and you can see the plan: faster, cheaper delivery on bulky items for people who already pay Walmart a fee. If your catalog overlaps with that, expect more price transparency and more pressure on shipping lines.

Think about it in scenarios, with thresholds. If freight is under 5% of order value, absorb it and advertise free shipping, because the cost is small and the conversion lift is easy to test. If freight runs 5% to 12%, offer free shipping only above a cart floor or on a bundle of product plus accessories. If freight tops 12%, which is common on heavy goods, keep the charge visible and sell the delivery promise and white-glove handling instead. These cutoffs are my rules of thumb for high-ticket stores, not industry data, so test them against your own margins.

Walmart’s marketplace is the other angle. If you list products there, Walmart shoppers who hold a membership may see free delivery on eligible items and skip yours. Neither report says how third-party sellers are affected, so treat that as an open question and watch your Walmart channel numbers for the next four weeks before you change prices or fees.

Retention is the part you can control. A Walmart+ member stays because the fee is already paid. Your equivalent is an email list that brings buyers back for accessories, parts, financing offers and the next big purchase. Klaviyo fits stores that want deep segmentation. Omnisend works if you want a simpler setup. Either way, the list is what you own when a giant resets expectations.

Post-purchase experience matters just as much. When a buyer has spent $2,000 with you, order tracking and fast answers are your answer to Prime-style convenience. A tracking layer like AfterShip keeps customers off your phone line. A help desk such as Gorgias puts every message in one inbox.

Pricing power comes from specialization, which is why I keep telling store owners to scale without cutting prices. A big-box bundle cannot out-specialize a store that knows one niche. If you are still choosing, my high-ticket niches list is the place to start.

If tracking all of this sounds like a second job, that is the point where owners hand the build to someone else. My team builds and runs high-ticket stores through the turnkey done-for-you service, including shipping settings, supplier setup and the ad and email systems that keep buyers returning.

Want 1-on-1 coaching to fix your shipping math and holiday offers before Walmart and Amazon set the price your buyers expect? Get the coaching details →

Five Moves to Make Before Black Friday Shipping Costs Hit

None of this requires a membership of your own. Here are five moves I would make this week, in order.

Pull your last 90 days of orders and calculate your real freight cost as a percentage of order value for each product line. Use your accounting tool or a spreadsheet, and if you want clean ecommerce margin reporting, Finaloop is built for ecommerce books.
Decide on a free-shipping threshold and test it. In your Shopify admin, set it up under discounts or shipping rates using Shopify’s free shipping discount guide, and run it for the Black Friday window only. Keep the order floor above your freight cost.
Put a delivery promise on every product page. List ship-from time, carrier type and expected transit days. A buyer who sees “ships in 2 business days, delivered in 5 to 7” will often accept a freight charge that a vague page would lose.
Set up an owned retention flow. Build a post-purchase email series in Shopify plus your email tool that asks for a review, offers accessories and invites the buyer back. Retention is the cheap version of a membership.
Audit supplier freight terms. Ask each of your suppliers for current rates, handling times and any holiday cutoffs, and consider a drop-ship aggregator like Inventory Source to compare feeds. If you want help with this, book a discovery call with my team.

For the full pre-holiday checklist, run through my Black Friday store stress test. My guide on competing with big-box stores on Black Friday covers the pricing side.

Shopify began moving shipping rates into Markets on Oct. 1. Read my breakdown of Shopify’s market-driven shipping rollout before you change rates.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does the Walmart+ and Sam’s Club Plus bundle cost?
It costs $120 a year, per Retail Dive and Digital Commerce 360. Existing Walmart+ annual members pay about $22 more, Sam’s Club Plus members can add Walmart+ at no extra cost, and basic Sam’s members pay $60 more.

When did the bundle start?
Retail Dive reports customers can buy it starting Tuesday, Oct. 20. Digital Commerce 360 does not state an effective date.

Does this affect Walmart Marketplace sellers?
Neither report says. The coverage focuses on shoppers, so seller fees, visibility and program rules are not addressed. Check Walmart’s seller communications before you assume anything.

Do I need a membership program to compete?
No. Most high-ticket stores do better with a clear delivery promise, a tested free-shipping threshold and a strong email list. My piece on raising average order value without more ad spend shows where to focus first.

Will shoppers really leave Prime for this?
Analyst Brett Rose told Retail Dive he does not expect the bundle to pull Prime members away before the holidays. Treat it as a pressure on expectations, not a proven switch.

Where does TikTok Shop fit into this?
It competes on a different axis, price and impulse. I covered the numbers in my post on TikTok Shop’s median top-seller price, which sits far below high-ticket territory.

Should I change my return policy too?
Probably review it. Shopify now lets you set return windows by product, which I explained in my post on Shopify return window overrides. If you want free resources to start from, grab my free niches list.

Want my team to scale the store you already have, from shipping offers to ads and email? See the scaling service →

Walmart and Amazon will keep adding perks, and shoppers will keep expecting more. Your job is to stay profitable while you meet them where it counts. Subscribe to the YouTube channel for daily breakdowns. More breaking news coming through the day.

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Trevor Fenner

Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.