A shopper wearing a protective mask pushes a dog into a cart outside a Walmart store in Lakewood, Calif., on July 16, 2020.
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walmart is entering the emerging pet telemedicine market.
The large retailer has partnered with Veterinary telehealth provider Pawp Walmart+ subscribers are being offered a one-year startup membership, the two companies confirmed to CNBC.
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Walmart+ subscribers will have unlimited access to veterinary telehealth via video or text starting Tuesday, when Walmart is expected to publicly announce the partnership. Remote veterinary visits are becoming more common industry-wide as consumers seek convenience, but some veterinarians say the practice can be risky for pets.
Walmart says the offer will be available for a limited time. Walmart+ subscribers have until November 19 to opt-in.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Annual memberships to Pawp start at $99.
Walmart’s foray into veterinary telehealth comes as the company looks to deepen shopper loyalty, attract and retain high-income customers and better compete with rivals. amazon Make its subscription service more valuable by adding perks.
Walmart+ costs $98 per year, or $12.95 per month. Similar to Amazon Prime, the Walmart service offers members unlimited free shipping and a host of other perks, such as free access to Paramount+ and gas station discounts.
Amazon Prime, which costs $139 per year or $14.99 per month, offers its own partnership, as members currently get a year of free GrubHub+, along with other perks like photo storage and prescription discounts. By adding Pawp to its subscriptions, Walmart hopes to keep its membership offering competitive with Amazon Prime.
“There’s no denying that over the last decade we’ve come to see pets as part of the family,” Pawp CEO Marc Atiyeh told CNBC. “[Walmart]has a very strong thesis around the pet category, yes, they want to be a big player in pet care and pet health, and Pawp really allows them to outperform their competitors and do something that other players haven’t done. ”
Promotional image for Pawp.
Source: Pawp
The deal comes at a time when the $123.6 billion U.S. pet market is exploding, with more and more American families sparing no expense to keep their furry family members healthy and happy.
According to Bloomberg Intelligence, the US market is expected to grow to $200 billion by the end of this decade, and pet healthcare is fueling that boom.
“During the pandemic, there have been a lot of pet adoptions, and more important than the numbers is how people treat their pets. Pets are becoming part of the family, and people are spending money on their pets, on their pet’s health care,” Peng said. Ann-Hunter Van Kirk, senior biopharmaceutical analyst at Bioinfo, told CNBC.
Pets used to be put down when animals developed serious health problems or life-threatening illnesses, but now, people are often willing to spend the necessary money to keep them alive, Van Kirk said.
Walmart’s partnership with Pawp “makes a lot of sense,” she said, showing how eager the retailer is to expand its presence in the pet market.
Walmart has been growing its pet business as Amazon deepens its investments in human health, including through its $3.9 billion acquisition of primary care provider One Medical. It’s already one of the bigger players in pet food, prescription drugs, insurance and durable goods like toys and beds.
Walmart’s expansion into the pet telemedicine space signals that the largest U.S. retailer is ready to expand its market share.
“(Walmart) has become a one-stop destination for all the needs of pet parents,” a company spokesperson told CNBC. “By providing easy, convenient shopping and affordable solutions for pet care in all areas — from food, treats, toys, apparel, durable goods and services — Walmart delivers real value, especially in this currency period of expansion.”
Telemedicine visits can be used to address “many common issues” such as allergies, digestive issues or “mild lameness,” the spokesperson said. This service can also be used for follow-up care.
Traditional pet-only retailers such as chewy and peko Already investing in pet care to better compete with big box stores. In the long run, this will be a key factor in their ability to grow and become more profitable over time.
A Walmart sign seen from the parking lot of its store in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.
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Walmart’s partnership with Pawp will allow it to better compete with Amazon and potentially boost sales of its pet products. The deal would also address a key issue for Pawp: customer acquisition.
Walmart hasn’t disclosed the number of its Walmart+ subscribers, but according to an April research note, Morgan Stanley estimated membership at 19.3 million and growing steadily.
Industry insiders point to acquiring new customers as one of the biggest hurdles pet telehealth providers must overcome to expand their business, as the practice is still so new and its value proposition may be limited.
Pawp has raised $27.5 million in funding since its inception in 2020, According to Crunchbase, nor share their membership numbers. But it now has access to millions of potential customers through partnerships.
Risks and Benefits of Pet Telemedicine
Pet telemedicine is just one subsection of the overall pet health market that has been growing rapidly since the Covid-19 pandemic, when it Originally created out of need.
Chewy was one of the first major retailers to offer the service, which is currently free to customers. A number of startups and large veterinary chains now offer telemedicine services for pet parents.
The practice has come under scrutiny from some vets, who have expressed concern that the service could put pets at risk. It has become a major point of contention in the veterinary community.
Several veterinarians told CNBC that it can be difficult to assess health issues, including life-threatening conditions, when pets are being examined virtually, saying there is no substitute for a physical exam.
Others see pet telemedicine as helping to bridge access to care as pet owners grapple with a nationwide veterinarian shortage and large pet health deserts in rural America.
Promotional image for Pawp.
Source: Pawp
CEO Sumit Singh previously told CNBC that the field also faces a host of regulatory challenges at the state and federal levels, which have hindered Chewy from expanding its telehealth services.
Most states actually prohibit veterinarians from diagnosing disease or prescribing medication unless they have previously examined pets in person and have established what is known as a veterinary client-patient relationship, or VCPR.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, several states temporarily lifted these guidelines in response to the global health emergency, but some states have made the changes permanent. It sparked a growing lobbying campaign to change VCPR regulations across the country, which Chewy and Mars Veterinary Health, a subsidiary of pet food and confectionery group Mars, helped fund.
The American Veterinary Medical Association, the nation’s leading veterinary advocacy organization, sustains VCPR outside of emergencies such as global pandemics Can only be built after an in-person examThe organization’s ethical standards allow veterinarians to diagnose disease, prescribe medication or treat animals virtually, but only if the VCPR is established in person.
In states that allow virtual VCPR, Pawp’s veterinarians will prescribe medication and perform a diagnosis when appropriate. But the company’s founder defended the practice, saying the best pet care comes when “the physical and the digital come together”.
“Typically, especially in our industry, regulations lag behind the latest innovation, the latest similar discovery, so we want to make sure we strike the right balance,” said Atiyeh, Pawp’s chief executive.
“We have a very short supply of veterinarians, right?” he continued. “The last thing you want is a pet that needs a certain medication … not getting the proper care they need, not getting the medication they need, just because they don’t have access to a veterinarian.”
Regardless of regulations, companies’ medical teams are constantly reviewing medications to determine which are safe to prescribe, such as those prescribed for fleas and ticks, he said.
“The first is can we prescribe it? The second is what kind of medicine can we prescribe,” Atiyeh said. “We still have high standards for what we think is the right thing to do with our pets.”
—— CNBC Melissa Repko contributed to this report.