The news: Walmart announced a series of Black Friday deals events as it looks to gain an early holiday advantage.

• The retailer’s first sales event will begin on November 11 for online shoppers, and start in stores on November 15.
• The second event begins online on November 25, and in stores on November 29.
• Walmart is also stretching out its Cyber Monday deals, which will be available to shoppers starting the evening of Sunday, December 1.

The details: Walmart is using its holiday sales to drive ecommerce purchases and Walmart+ adoption.

• Walmart will offer exclusive Black Friday deals on its website and app, thus incentivizing deal-seeking shoppers to visit its digital channels more frequently.
• Both online shoppers and Walmart+ members will have a head start on the sales events, with the latter gaining a five-hour advantage on the first two Black Friday sales and a three-hour Early Access window for Cyber Monday.
• To encourage Walmart+ sign-ups, the retailer is offering shoppers 50% off its annual membership until December 2.

Walmart is also counting on generative AI (genAI) to play a larger role this holiday season.

• The retailer is expanding the beta test of its genAI shopping assistant, which customers can ask for recommendations to discover and evaluate products best suited to their needs.
• Walmart is also using AI to predict the kind of holiday-related content shoppers will want to see during the sales events and throughout the rest of the season, in service of its broader mission of offering customers a more personalized ecommerce experience.

Our take: We expect Walmart’s holiday retail ecommerce sales to grow 9.7% this year, faster than Amazon and big-box competitor Target. Still, the retailer will account for just 8.1% of total ecommerce sales this holiday season to Amazon’s 42.1%, giving it significant runway for growth.

Go further: Read our US Holiday Shopping 2024 report and our US Holiday Ecommerce Sales Benchmarks: Q4 2024.