Washington – A new CCIA Research Center study reveals enormous consumer benefits from retail membership bundles at Mexico’s leading four Big Box stores: Walmart Pass, Sam’s Club, Costco, and H-E-B Prime in Mexico, finding not only that bundling generates a Mexican consumer surplus of approximately MXN $1.4B annually, but that the majority of Mexican consumers enjoy bundled features in retail memberships and often subscribe to multiple memberships.
The research finds that 81% of members at one of Mexico’s leading four Big Box stores also have a membership with at least one more Big Box store. When MeLi+ and Amazon are considered as well, 94% of Mexican consumers with a membership at either Walmart Pass, Sam’s Club, Costco, H-E-B Prime, Amazon, or MeLi+ also have a membership with at least one more of the six retailers. Price is the primary driver of consumer retail membership preference.
Surveyed Mexican consumers responded with delight at the prospect of existing retail memberships adding additional membership features, suggesting the Mexican market is receptive to the expansion of feature-rich customer benefit programs.
As retailers undergo increased government scrutiny from competition regulators in Mexico, these findings overwhelmingly demonstrate that retailers offering bundled memberships boost consumer welfare.
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The following can be attributed to CCIA Chief Economist & Research Center Director Trevor Wagener:
“The latest retail research shows that Mexican consumers with at least one paid retail membership enjoy retail membership bundles, are delighted by having more features included in retail memberships, and typically have paid memberships at multiple retailers. Mexican consumer surplus from Big Box retail memberships alone is about MXN $1.4B annually, consistent with robust retail competition and indicating the potential costs to consumers if Mexican regulators restrict retail membership bundles.”