Walmart is the latest player in the up-and-coming pet telehealth sector.
The company has agreed to provide Walmart+ members a free year’s subscription to veterinary telehealth platform Pawp, according to published reports.
The deal, expected to be officially announced Tuesday (May 23), comes as Walmart is using its Walmart+ membership plan to compete with Amazon Prime.
Walmart debuted Walmart+ in 2020 and as of last summer, the program had an estimated 51 million subscribers in the United States versus Amazon Prime’s 171 million, according to PYMNTS’ “Walmart+ Weekend” report.
In the last year, Walmart has taken several steps to compel consumers to join the program, including early shopping deals for Black Friday, a partnership with streaming service Paramount+, free delivery for online orders, and free memberships for women who give birth during the month of May.
The company also inked a partnership with American Express that PYMNTS described in March as a “shot across” Amazon’s bow.
By entering the pet healthcare space, Walmart is tapping into a market worth $43 billion, as Mita Malhotra, vice president and general manager at Chewy Pharmacy and Healthcare, told PYMNTS earlier this year.
There’s still room for growth, with just a handful of states allowing complete virtual veterinary services, she said.
Meanwhile, other players are looking to get into the pet health market, such as Mars, whose CEO Poul Weirauch said in March that the growth rate of the company’s pet care segment will eventually surpass that of its candy business due to the changing role of pets in our lives.
Pawp CEO Marc Atiyeh echoed that sentiment in an interview with CNBC about his company’s partnership with Walmart.
“It’s undeniable that over the past decade, we started thinking and looking at pets as part of the family,” he said.
Walmart, Atiyeh added, has “a very strong thesis around the pet category and yes, they want to be a big player in pet care and pet health in general, and Pawp really allows them to leapfrog the competition and do something that none of the other players have done.”
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