Personal Finance
Walmart+ Adds New Cashback Feature Powered by Ibotta
Over the past few months, retail giant Walmart has actively been promoting its Walmart+ membership. In that time, they’ve also unveiled new features and offers for the service in order to entice subscribers. The latest feature to join the service is a new cashback rewards platform called Walmart Reward, which will be exclusive to Walmart+ members.
When Walmart+ members shop online or in the app, they may encounter products offering cashback rewards. Customers can then tap the rewards offer to add the item to their cart and, if they complete the purchase, the stated amount will be added to their rewards balance. Then, shoppers can apply their earned rewards to future orders. If shopping in-store, customers will scan the Walmart Pay QR code and select “Use Walmart Rewards” while online shoppers will be able to choose this option at checkout.
According to Walmart’s press release, this new cashback feature is powered by the Ibotta Performance Network. Ibotta is an app that offers similar digital coupons for products available at various retailers along with other bonus-earning opportunities. However, Walmart is promising that the Walmart Rewards platform will continue to expand, writing, “This opens the door to endless earning possibilities for members in the future. We’ll continue to build new ways to reward member loyalty within the Walmart Rewards program.”
Launched in 2020 as a perceived competitor to Amazon Prime, Walmart+ has continued to evolve in the nearly two years since. While the membership continues to offer free shipping on orders of $35 or more and allows customers to save between 5¢ and 10¢ per gallon at Walmart and Murphy’s gasoline locations, in April, it added the ability for users to also save 10¢ per gallon at participating Exxon and Mobil stations. More recently, it was also announced that Walmart+ members would soon have access to the Paramount+ streaming service. Currently, a Walmart+ subscription comes at a cost of $12.95 a month or $98 per year.
Overall, the Walmart Rewards feature appears to be an easy way for shoppers to claim cashback on some common grocery and household goods. In fact, for frequent Walmart shoppers, this may be a better option than using Ibotta itself as that has a rewards threshold you’ll need to hit before cashing out. Of course, this new feature alone likely doesn’t make Walmart+ worth it for most consumers. But, when combined with the existing benefits and other new perks such as Paramount+, suddenly Walmart+ is beginning to look more attractive to a wider swath of shoppers.
